Racing at Hollywood Park : Great Communicator Faces Pair of Tough Tests

Thad Ackel, the 33-year-old trainer who won the $2-million Breeders’ Cup Turf last month with Great Communicator, gave part of an interview Friday morning while on his knees.

Ackel wasn’t begging for votes in the Eclipse Awards election. He believes that Great Communicator has already done enough to be selected as male grass champion. Ackel was on his knees in Great Communicator’s stall, rubbing the 5-year-old gelding’s sore forelegs.

“When any of my horses have leg problems, I like to work on them myself,” Ackel said. “And when a horse--any horse--has done as much running as this one has, there’s almost bound to be leg problems. The exception to that is Alysheba.”

Ackel’s 15 horses share a barn at Hollywood Park with trainer Jack Van Berg’s, and Alysheba, one of Van Berg’s horses, is a cinch to win horse of the year when the Eclipse ballots are counted Jan. 3.

But Great Communicator, the first gelding to win a Breeders’ Cup race, will be involved in the closest vote, since there is still much support for Sunshine Forever, even though he finished second, a half-length back, in the Breeders’ Cup.

The records of the horses are similar. Great Communicator has won 5 graded stakes, finished in the money in 9 of 10 starts and earned $1.7 million. Sunshine Forever has also won 5 graded stakes, been in the money 11 out of 12 races and earned $2 million. Before the Breeders’ Cup, the only time they had run together was in the Arlington Million in August, when Sunshine Forever finished third and Great Communicator was seventh.

Sunshine Forever has won 3 Grade I stakes, a Grade II and a Grade III. Great Communicator’s respective totals are 2, 2 and 1, and he could pass Sunshine Forever in stakes and match him in Grade I events with a victory today in the $500,000 Hollywood Turf Cup.

“If my horse (was able to breed), the Eclipse Award would mean much more because it would enhance his stud value,” Ackel said. “Still, I want the award badly, because I have a lot of pride and I just feel the horse deserves it. We’re here, ready to run, and the other horse isn’t here, and that ought to mean something.”

Today’s race might not be as fully packed the Breeders’ Cup Turf, but it still ranks as one of the strongest grass fields of the year. The 10-horse field includes Pay the Butler, winner of the Japan Cup; Nasr el Arab, who has won his only 2 U.S. starts and beat Great Communicator by 2 lengths in the Oak Tree Invitational; Silver Circus, winner of the Hollywood Derby; and Forlitano, who won the Citation Handicap at Hollywood Park last month and finished second to Vilzak in the Turf Cup last year.

Great Communicator was fourth in last year’s race, going off at 86-1, the longest price in the field. For much of his 41-race career, which started in $25,000 and $30,000 claiming races in Louisiana, Great Communicator has been overlooked by bettors: He was 12-1 in the Breeders’ Cup; his 3 wins at Santa Anita early in the year came at 12-1, 11-1 and 6-1.

Great Communicator hadn’t won since June when he finished first in the Breeders’ Cup with a resilient stretch effort. Three horses actually inched ahead of him at the top of the stretch, but jockey Ray Sibille, who had never ridden in a Breeders’ Cup race, got Great Communicator to dig in for more.

“I don’t think the voters should forget about what this horse did early in the year,” Ackel said. “As for graded races, I don’t think that there’s too much difference between a Grade I and a Grade III in the grass division. Sometimes a Grade III can be tougher than a Grade I if you get the right horses running, and we’ve been running against the best all year, no matter how the race has been graded.”

Because of his sore legs, Great Communicator likes a soft course, and Hollywood Park’s course will be yielding today because of all the recent rain.

On the other hand, Great Communicator has won only 1 of 9 starts at Hollywood, and he’s 0 for 6 in stakes starts at the Inglewood track.

“For a mile and a half, they use the first finish line here, and I think that confuses this horse,” Ackel said. “He’s the kind of horse that likes a long stretch run and I think he’s looking at that second wire and thinks that’s where the race will end.”

Horse Racing Notes

Waki River is a major winner from France who will make his U.S. debut in the Turf Cup. . . . Ray Sibille rode Great Communicator for the first time in last year’s race and has been his jockey ever since. . . . Baba Karam will be the last horse to run for trainer John Gosden before he returns to his native England. Gosden has won 3 of the last 4 Turf Cups, with Alphabatim in 1984 and 1986 and with Zoffany in 1985. . . . Hollywood Park’s season ends today, and Santa Anita’s meeting opens Monday.