Rock Hard Ten Is Favorite

Four of the six entrants in Saturday’s $400,000 Swaps Breeders’ Cup Stakes at Hollywood Park are coming off wins. Another is one race removed from his only victory.

The other 3-year-old in the Swaps hasn’t won in more than four months, yet Rock Hard Ten will be a prohibitive favorite in the Swaps, one of three graded stakes on a card that also includes the $150,000 A Gleam Handicap and the day’s main event, the $750,000 Hollywood Gold Cup.

Rock Hard Ten, a son of Kris S., has not won since beating Teton Forest and three others in an allowance race March 3 at Santa Anita.

Since beginning his career with two victories, Rock Hard Ten, who is owned by Madeleine Paulson and Ernie Moody’s Mercedes Stable LLC, has run in three consecutive Grade I races.

Beaten by a head by Castledale in the Santa Anita Derby, then disqualified and placed third for causing interference nearing the wire, Rock Hard Ten spent a couple of days in May and June admiring Smarty Jones from a distance.

Unable to get into the Kentucky Derby because of insufficient graded stakes earnings, the dark bay colt, who was bred by Paulson in Kentucky, was beaten by 11 1/2 lengths when second in the Preakness, then finished fifth, a dozen lengths behind Birdstone, in the Belmont Stakes.

Given a little time off after his trip to New York, Rock Hard Ten has trained well in recent weeks and will try to catch his less heralded stablemate, Laura’s Lucky Boy, in stakes wins Saturday.

Laura’s Lucky Boy, a turf specialist, was an impressive winner in the Will Rogers earlier in the Hollywood Park meet.

“He’s doing really well,” said trainer Jason Orman on Thursday morning, a day after entries were taken for the 31st Swaps, a Grade II at 1 1/8 miles.

“He came out of the [Belmont] well and we gave him a little breather for about 10 days.”

Asked some difficult questions in the spring, Rock Hard Ten will be meeting a field in the Swaps that includes only two graded stakes winners.

Suave, a Kentucky shipper, won the Northern Dancer, a Grade III, on June 12 at Churchill Downs, and Boomzeeboom upset stablemate Twice As Bad in the Affirmed, also a Grade III, here on June 15.

Otherwise, Brands Hatch and Bear In The Woods have only maiden wins on their resumes and Capitano is a two-time winner, having earned both victories in Inglewood.

He defeated maidens at 109-1 in his debut a little more than a year ago, then won an optional claimer as the 9-5 second choice in his last start May 15.

Clearly, if Rock Hard Ten is as good as some have been saying he is for several months, he should win the Swaps.

“It seems like he’s bounced back from the [Preakness and Belmont], but you never know for sure until you run them,” Orman said.

Rock Hard Ten will have a new rider Saturday, with Corey Nakatani becoming his fourth jockey, following Alex Solis, Gary Stevens and David Flores.

Patrick Valenzuela would have had the mount in the Swaps, but he is suspended again, so Moody made the decision to use Nakatani.

Suave will be ridden by Rafael Bejarano, who has never been to California.

A native of Peru, Bejarano, 22, leads the country in wins by a wide margin -- he had 245 through Monday -- and unseated perennial champion Pat Day at Churchill Downs, which concluded its spring-summer meet Monday.

Bejarano had 81 victories, 27 more than Day, who has led 34 meets at the Louisville track.

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Valenzuela’s formal hearing in front of Hollywood Park stewards Pete Pedersen, George Slender and Tom Ward will be conducted at 10 a.m. Thursday.

The jockey was suspended a week ago for failing to comply with all of the terms of his condition license.

The day after he returned from a one-month suspension with two victories, Valenzuela, who had shaved his head and other parts of his body, was unable to provide the proper hair sample to be tested for drugs.

Hair follicle tests are considered more effective than urine tests.