Gold Cup story lines enticing

The $700,000 Hollywood Gold Cup lacks star power, but it quietly might be one of the best betting races of the year. The Saturday feature is headed by a tepid 4-1 favorite in Parading among 13 starters. Still, there is intrigue galore around the race on and off the track.

There is a chance this could be the final Gold Cup run at Hollywood Park. Track owner Bay Meadows Land Co. would like to close the track sooner, rather than later. I would hate for BMLC to do to Hollywood what it did to Bay Meadows, namely end racing, tear down the track, and let the land sit vacant.

BMLC wants to build a multibillion-dollar project called Hollywood Park Tomorrow, a high-end retail, office and residential complex. What a great idea in today’s economy. California and its citizens are going belly-up and BMLC wants to build CityCenter 2 in the heart of Inglewood.

The Gold Cup field is fascinating. Life Is Sweet, a filly stablemate of Zenyatta, will try to beat the boys instead. Trainer John Shirreffs is conservative by nature, so I doubt if he would chance this unless he felt he has a good shot. I like the angle that if Life Is Sweet can win the Gold Cup, yet not warm up Zenyatta, then how good is Zenyatta?

Parading ships in from the East Coast after winning the Dixie and Ben Ali in his last two starts. The fact he is favored does not flatter the West Coast contingent. For example, the fastest last-race Beyer figure in the field, 104, belongs to Tres Borrachos, yet he is 30-1 in the morning line. He is followed by eight horses that ran a last race Beyer between 98 and 101. That tells me half of the Gold Cup field could potentially finish within two lengths at the wire.

The sentimental horse in the field will be last year’s Gold Cup winner Mast Track. His owner and trainer, Bobby Frankel, who turned 68 on Thursday, is battling an undisclosed serious illness.

Finally, the corporate sponsor of the Gold Cup is TVG and its new owner, Betfair. There is no doubt both entities can play a big role in rejuvenating the sport and — in the case of Betfair — possibly the business of horse racing. Betfair has the technology and savvy creativity to bring new ideas to the table. Racing needs new revenue streams and Betfair has a proven track record for innovation.

Rich Eng’s horse racing column is published Friday in the Las Vegas Review-Journal. He can be reached at rich_eng@hotmail.com.