Gold Cup Increases in Value by Adding Dollar Bill

The sagging Hollywood Gold Cup, faced with a small field despite a $750,000 purse, picked up an intriguing shipper Sunday when trainer Dallas Stewart said he would be bringing Dollar Bill from Churchill Downs for next Sunday’s race.

Even with Dollar Bill, the 63rd Gold Cup may have only five starters. Others expected to run are Milwaukee Brew, Momentum, Out Of Mind and Macaneo. Milwaukee Brew, winner of the Santa Anita Handicap and the Californian at Hollywood in his last two starts, will be favored.

Last year there was a five-horse field for the Gold Cup, two years after Real Quiet’s 1999 win over only three rivals, which was the smallest field in race history.

Stewart decided to run in the Gold Cup after Dollar Bill’s :48 2/5 half-mile workout Sunday at Churchill. The 4-year-old colt will be flown to California today. Mark Guidry, who has ridden Dollar Bill in his last two races, retains the mount and will ride in his first Gold Cup.

In his last start, at Churchill on June 15, Dollar Bill finished second in the Stephen Foster Handicap but was 6 1/2 lengths behind Street Cry, who might be the best horse currently in training.

Dollar Bill won an allowance race at the Fair Grounds in New Orleans to start the year, but he has won only one of his last 10 starts and hasn’t won a stake since his victory in the Risen Star at the Fair Grounds in February of last year. That win established Dollar Bill as one of the top Kentucky Derby contenders, but he then had a series of hard-luck trips, which contributed to a 15th-place finish in the Derby and a fourth-place run in the Preakness.

After Dollar Bill ran fourth in the Belmont, jockey Pat Day concluded that he might be a bad match for the colt and Stewart switched to other riders. Dollar Bill’s last start of 2001 was a third-place finish behind Point Given and E Dubai in the Travers.

Overall, Dollar Bill has four wins, four seconds and three thirds in 16 starts, with purses of $1 million.

“I think sooner or later he’s going to get one of these big ones,” said Stewart. “I hope it’s going to be sooner. You’ve got to keep trying.”

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Riding for the Stute brothers has paid off for jockey Matt Garcia at the current Hollywood meet. For Mel Stute, he won the Landaluce Stakes with Buffythecenterfold on Thursday and Sunday he won his second stake of the season for Warren Stute when favored Go Go was a neck better than Dyna’s Club in the $91,925 Great Lady M. Handicap.

Garcia got the mount on Go Go because Eddie Delahoussaye has been sidelined for a week because of a virus that has caused facial swelling. Delahoussaye is expected to return for Wednesday’s card.

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Black Ruby, the 10-year-old mule, won for the 21st time in her last 22 starts when she beat a familiar rival, Taz, by a nose at Pleasanton. Black Ruby’s 57th win in 75 starts was worth $5,585 and unofficially boosted her purses to almost $180,000, which is a record for mules. Black Ruby’s only loss during the hot spell came when Taz beat her by a neck at Santa Rosa last August. With no place or show betting Sunday, Black Ruby paid $2.40.... Sunday’s stakes winners included Lone Star Sky, who was 3 1/2 lengths better than odds-on favorite Posse in the $136,250 Bashford Manor at Churchill Downs; Gygistar in the $150,000 Dwyer at Belmont Park; Clearly A Queen in the $100,000 Matchmaker at Mounmouth Park; and Hoovergetthekeys in the $50,000 Alamedan Handicap at Pleasanton.