Skip Away Will Skip Gold Cup

There was a supplementary entry to the $1-million Hollywood Gold Cup on Wednesday, the deadline to do so, but it wasn’t the thoroughbred Hollywood Park management was hoping to get.

The connections of River Keen, the upset winner in a weak Californian earlier this month, put up $25,000--$15,000 more will be due to start--to become eligible for the meeting’s richest race, but Skip Away won’t be coming west for the June 29 event.

Sonny Hine, who trains Skip Away for wife Carolyn, decided not to put up the money after saying last week he was strongly considering the Gold Cup as the 4-year-old’s next start.

Apparently, Hine wasn’t happy with the way Skip Away has been behaving recently.

“The horse has been a little hang-dog, and if I knock him out, it will ruin his autumn,” Hine said of Skip Away, who has won only one of five starts this year.

There is still a chance an Eastern-based horse could show for the Gold Cup, which figures to be topped by the first three finishers in the Santa Anita Handicap--the Richard Mandella-trained trio of Siphon, Gentlemen and Sandpit.

Will’s Way, who won the Travers at 7-1 at Saratoga last August and most recently was third behind Skip Away and Formal Gold in the Massachusetts Handicap at Suffolk Downs on May 31, will work six furlongs at Belmont Park on Sunday. A decision about the Gold Cup will be made after that. A winner of half of his 10 starts, the 4-year-old Easy Goer colt is trained by H. James Bond.

If Will’s Way doesn’t travel, Mandella will have two-thirds of the Gold Cup field because he is scheduled also to run turf specialist Talloires, who is owned by Hollywood Park chief executive R.D. Hubbard. The only other probable entrants at this point are Marlin, who was fourth in the Santa Anita Handicap in his last try on the main track, and River Keen.

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A two-time winner of the Breeders’ Cup Distaff and the Eclipse Award as the nation’s top older female performer, Bayakoa was put down last Saturday because of complications that arose after she gave birth last month.

Successful in the Breeders’ Cup at Gulfstream Park in 1989 and at Belmont Park in 1990, a race marred by the tragic breakdown of Go For Wand, Bayakoa had given birth to a filly by Broad Brush on May 7. According to the Daily Racing Form, complications developed immediately and the 13-year-old mare was put down Saturday afternoon at Pennbrook Farm in Lexington.

While racing in this country for the late Frank Whitham and wife Janice, Bayakoa, bred in Argentina, was trained by Ron McAnally. She won 12 Grade I races in her career, including the Santa Margarita Handicap at Santa Anita and the Milady at Hollywood Park twice. She finished her career with 18 victories in 31 starts and earned more than $2.7 million.

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Making her U.S. debut for trainer Bob Hess Jr., Lady Mail easily won Wednesday’s feature, a $43,000 allowance race on the grass.

Owned by Hubbard and Connie Sczesny, the 3-year-old, Irish-bred filly rallied from well off the pace under Kent Desormeaux to win by three lengths in 1:35 2/5. She paid $15.80 for her second victory in five starts.

Horse Racing Notes

Riding 16-1 shot Ocean Ridge, Gary Stevens was second Wednesday in the Coronation Stakes, a Group I race, at Royal Ascot in England. Another longshot, Rebecca Sharp, won the race under Mike Hills. Favored Sleepytime finished third after a troubled trip. . . . Stevens will return to ride Sharp Cat in the $200,000 Mother Goose at Belmont Park on Saturday. . . . Langfuhr, Canada’s champion sprinter in 1996 and winner of the Metropolitan Handicap at Belmont Park in his final start on May 26, has been retired after suffering a ligament injury in his left front leg. The 5-year-old son of Danzig finished with nine victories in 23 starts and earned nearly $700,000. . . . Sunshack, who was second in all three of his races in the U.S., including the San Juan Capistrano and the Hollywood Turf Handicap, has been retired because of an injury to his left front ankle. He will stand at stud in Japan.