Blueprint Gives Gold Cup a Touch of English Royalty

One of the nine horses entered for Sunday’s $1-million Sempra Energy Hollywood Gold Cup was bred by “The Queen.”

Quite simply, that’s what the horse’s record says.

More specifically, Blueprint, a 15-1 shot on the morning line, was bred by Queen Elizabeth II. Those English do have a way about them, don’t they?

Until recently, Blueprint was also raced by “The Queen.” But she sold him last month to two colonists, David Shimmon and Bill Bianco. Part of the pre-sale agreement was that she would be allowed to run Blueprint one more time, at her race meet at Royal Ascot.

Blueprint, running 1 1/2 miles on grass, finished third on June 23, and several days later was flown from England to California. After quarantine here, he showed up a week ago today at the barn of Bob Hess Jr. at Hollywood Park.

In company with another horse Wednesday, Hess worked the 5-year-old Irish-bred four furlongs on dirt in 49 seconds. Then the decision was made to supplement him into the Gold Cup for $25,000.

Blueprint has run three of his 18 races on dirt, winning twice, but that was two years ago at minor English tracks. Overall, he has a record of seven wins, two seconds and three thirds.

“What we’re doing is unorthodox,” Hess said. “And you may not ever see me do it again. It was my decision. There might have been a lot of reasons not to run, but we couldn’t find any. We want to know whether we’ve got a good dirt horse or not.

“If there were four or five General Challenges in there, this would be a foolish move, but that’s not the case. There’s only one General Challenge.”

He hasn’t run in three months, and while I’m sure that [trainer Bob Baffert] will have him fit, General Challenge has never really run that well at this track.”

General Challenge, winner of the Strub and the Santa Anita Handicap this winter, drew the No. 7 post and is the 9-5 favorite on the morning line for the 1 1/4-mile dirt race.

Out Of Mind, winner of the Mervyn LeRoy Handicap at Hollywood on May 13 and second to Running Stag in the Massachusetts Handicap at Suffolk Downs on June 3, is another $25,000 supplementary, and along with Big Ten gives trainer Richard Mandella two shots. He won consecutive Gold Cups with Siphon in 1996 and Gentlemen in 1997.

Nakatani, seeking his first Gold Cup victory, has taken over the ridership of General Challenge in three races--two of them victories--this year.

“He has tremendous ability,” Nakatani said. “He’s been training on a different track [at Santa Anita], but I think his class will show and he’ll give a good account of himself. If he puts his best foot forward, there’s not a better horse in the country.”

As Hess awaits the Gold Cup with Blueprint, the question at Hollywood Park is why Queen Elizabeth II would sell a son of Generous, the 1991 Irish and Epsom Derby winner. Blueprint’s price has been kept private, but it is believed to be in the $750,000 range.

“The queen obviously doesn’t need the money,” said someone familiar with her racing and breeding operation, “but at the end of every year she likes to have her horse business pay for itself. She doesn’t sell too many, and while most times her asking price is too expensive, occasionally she will turn loose some of her male horses. She doesn’t like to sell the fillies. She prefers keeping them for broodmares.”

Gary Stevens, the retired American rider, vouched for Blueprint on grass after winning with him at Ascot last year, and bloodstock agent Richard Duggin, impressed with the horse, had shown Hess videotapes of some of his races. Needing a first-hand impression, Hess traveled to England to see Blueprint.

“His stride reminds me of River Keen,” Hess said. “He has more of a dirt style than a turf style--he doesn’t explode in the final eighth of a mile, but he just keeps coming. He seems to have acclimated better than other horses that have come right off the plane from Europe. Chris [McCarron] worked him and gave us the thumbs up.

“I wasn’t looking for any particular time in his workout. If he worked in :48 or :50, I still might have liked it. The thing I liked is that he did it so easily. It was how he got over the ground that impressed me.”

In a Hall of Fame career that has been landscaped with big-race wins, McCarron has never won the Gold Cup. From 17 mounts, he has had nine seconds, the closest losses in Go West Young Man’s neck decision over Balzac in 1980 and Marquetry’s victory by a head over Farma Way in 1991.

Also an Irish-bred, River Keen won the 1997 Californian for Hess in his first U.S. start. Five weeks later, in the Pacific Classic at Del Mar, River Keen ran last, beaten by 25 lengths, and his stakes career crashed and burned under Hess, who lost him on a $100,000 claim to Baffert at the end of 1998.

Last year, for Baffert, River Keen shook off foot problems to win the Bel Air Handicap at Hollywood Park and the Woodward and the Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park.

“After Sunday’s race, you may not see Blueprint again for 60 days,” Hess said. “What’s he got going is that I haven’t had him long enough to screw him up. But I better quit saying that. I said the same thing about River Keen, and it turned out to be the truth.”

Horse Racing Notes

Blueprint was trained in England by Sir Michael Stoute and Lord Huntingdon. . . . Post time for the Gold Cup, the fifth race on Sunday’s card, is 2:40 p.m. First post is 12:10. Also on the card are a couple of sprint stakes, the $300,000 Triple Bend Breeders’ Cup Handicap and the $200,000 A Gleam Handicap, plus the $100,000 California Sire Stakes. . . . . Tonight’s pick-six carry-over pool is $719,923, a two-day record for Hollywood Park. Track officials are hoping that tonight’s total pool might reach the $2-million mark.

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Luck of the Draw

The field from the rail out for the 61st running of the $1-million Sempra Energy Hollywood Gold Cup on Sunday (all starters carry 124 pounds):

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Horse Jockey Odds Cat Thief Pat Day 5-1 David Aaron Gryder 12-1 Pleasant Breeze Jorge Chavez 20-1 Early Pioneer Victor Espinoza 15-1 Chester House Kent Desormeaux 5-1 Big Ten Alex Solis 12-1 General Challenge Corey Nakatani 9-5 Blueprint (s) Chris McCarron 15-1 Out Of Mind (s) Eddie Delahoussaye 5-2

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(s) supplemental nomination