Estrapade Has High Weight in Vanity Handicap

Today’s $250,000 Vanity Handicap at Hollywood Park matches two of this meeting’s top 5-year-old mares--former French runner Estrapade and Kentucky-bred Lovlier Linda--in what is being touted as one of the summer’s most competitive races.

The seven-horse field for this Grade I invitational, to be run on the main track at 1 1/8 miles, is composed of stakes-winners. They’re all proven runners on the dirt, with one notable exception--the top-weighted Estrapade.

Estrapade, who will carry 119 pounds, has run all but one of her 16 starts on the turf. In her only dirt race, Santa Anita’s Santa Margarita Invitational Handicap last February, Estrapade finished eighth, her poorest showing to date.

Although the Charlie Whittingham-trained Estrapade has two wins and two seconds in her last four starts, Lovlier Linda appears to be today’s favorite.

Lovlier Linda, the daughter of Vigors out of Linda Summers, has won 10 races in 22 lifetime starts and has finished in the money in all six of her 1985 starts. She carries the second high weight of 118 pounds.

In the Santa Margarita, the chestnut mare’s three-length victory convinced her owner, W. R. Hawn, and her trainer, Willard Proctor, to keep her on the track for one more year rather than retire her as previously planned.

Since receiving her racing extension, Lovlier Linda has finished second twice--to Adored in the Milday and to Dontstop Themusic in the A Gleam.

Dontstop Themusic, another top weight at 118 pounds, is one of trainer Randy Winick’s two entrants in the Vanity, the other being Mitterand. Dontstop Themusic, the 5-year-old Florida-bred daughter of Stop the Music, has won 10 of 31 starts--all of them on the dirt.

Similarly, Mitterand, has also run exclusively on the dirt. The 4-year-old Florida-bred daughter of Hold Your Peace has never finished out of the money in 14 lifetime starts.

At 117 pounds, Mitterand is the third high weight and should be favored over stablemate Dontstop Themusic. Aside from her consistent record, Mitterand has shown she can handle just about any distance, scoring victories in the La Brea Stakes at seven furlongs, the El Encino Stakes at 1 1/6 miles and the La Canada Stakes at 1 1/8 miles to sweep this year’s La Canada Series for 4-year-old fillies at Santa Anita.

The field for today’s race: Dontstop Themusic with jockey Angel Cordero Jr.; Love Smitten, Eddie Delahoussaye; Lovlier Linda, Chris McCarron; Estrapade, Gary Stevens; Salt Spring, Rafael Meza; Mitterand, Laffit Pincay, and Shywing, Bill Shoemaker.