Star Parade Regains Her Form

After throwing in a rare stinker at Oaklawn Park last month, Star Parade rebounded at her favorite track Sunday.

Urged to the front out of the gate by regular rider Martin Pedroza, the 7-year-old mare never relinquished the lead and won the $100,000 Hawthorne Handicap at Hollywood Park.

This was the fourth win in seven starts on the main track in Inglewood for Star Parade, who was the 8-5 second choice in a field reduced to five after the scratch of longshot Freakin Streakin.

Completing the 1 1/16 miles in 1:42.26 in the Grade III, the Argentina-bred won for the ninth time in 31 starts and pushed her earnings to $1,160,419 for owner Gary Tanaka and trainer Darrell Vienna.

Vienna was confident Star Parade would bounce back from her Apple Blossom Handicap debacle on April 8 in Hot Springs. She finished fifth of six that day as the 19-10 second choice over a track the trainer said she hated.

“It was a different kind of track from when she had been there before,” he said. “It hadn’t been watered and it was kind of powdery and she did not like it.

“I told Martin to do whatever he wanted today. I didn’t think these horses could beat her and to ride her like he wanted.”

Hollywood Story, the 9-2 third choice and defending Hawthorne champion, was second, 1 3/4 lengths behind the winner, but a bit more than five in front of 11-10 favorite Healthy Addiction.

A wire-to-wire winner as an 8-1 shot in the Santa Margarita Handicap on March 11 at Santa Anita, Healthy Addiction pressed the pace early, but had no response in the final quarter-mile.

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Apprentice jockey Martin Garcia, who led the standings at the Golden Gate Fields meet that ended Sunday, will begin riding at Hollywood Park on Friday.

“He’s very happy to be coming down,” said Roger Olguin, Garcia’s agent.

“We will be moving on Tuesday and be on the backstretch on Wednesday to begin taking calls to ride on Friday.”

Garcia, 21, returned to action Saturday and won two races after suffering a broken wrist in a spill nine days earlier.

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Grey Swallow, the winner of the 2004 Irish Derby, worked a mile in 1:39.20 over the Hollywood Park turf course preparing for the $250,000 Jim Murray Memorial Handicap on Saturday.

King’s Drama, the winner of the San Luis Rey Stakes in March at Santa Anita in his most recent start for Tanaka and trainer Bobby Frankel, was given top weight of 122 pounds for the Murray, which goes at 1 1/2 miles. Grey Swallow, who is trained by Dermot Weld, was given 121.

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Hollywood Park handled a record $26.7 million on its Kentucky Derby program. The old mark was $24.5 million in 1999. There were 11 live races Saturday compared to nine in ’99.

The total was the second highest in track history, behind the $67,096,242 handled when Hollywood Park hosted the Breeders’ Cup in 1997.