Handicapping this Weekend's Native Diver and Bayakoa at Hollywood Park

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Rob Gregorka

Las Vegas, NV -- Hollywood Park has two stakes races this weekend with the $100,000 Native Diver Handicap on Saturday and the $150,000 Bayakoa Handicap on Sunday. Let's look at both of these feature races for this weekend.

Saturday's Native Diver Handicap

Post	Horse	Jockey	Trainer
1	Kettle Corn	G. Gomez	J. Sadler
2	Eldaafer	J. Talamo	B. Koriner
3	Tweebster	R. Bejarano	B. Baffert
4	Rescue Squad	M. Smith	C. McGaughey
5	Summer Movie	A. Delgadillo	A. Sherman
6	Tres Borrachos	J. Rosario	M. Jones

The eighth race on a nine-race card on Saturday at Hollywood Park is the Native Diver, with Tres Borrachos the likely favorite at Offtrackbetting.com. Tres Borrachos has done well at Hollywood Park with three of his four career wins coming there. The horse is coming off a third-place finish in the Breeders' Cup Mile.

Hollywood Park horse racing brings 2 stakes races this weekend with purses totaling $250,000

"He seemed like he handled the travel well," trainer Marty Jones said. "We feel pretty confident he'll run a good race. We tried something in the Goodwood. We rushed him a bit, and I don't think he liked it. He seems to like making a run, like he did in the Breeders' Cup."

The main threat to Tres Borrachos could be Eldaafer, who won last year's Breeders' Cup Marathon. He has won 11 of his 32 career starts. The other horses in this race are Rescue Squad who has won three of 16 career races, Kettle Corn who is in his first stakes race, Tweebster for trainer Bob Baffert who is the leading trainer in the autumn meet at Hollywood Park, Massone who has lost 13 straight races and Summer Movie.

Sunday's Bayakoa Handicap

Post	Horse	Jockey	Trainer
1	Love Theway Youare	A. Quinonez	M. Cho
2	Washington Bridge	J. Talamo	J. Hollendorfer
3	Ellafitz	M. Garcia	B. Baffert
4	Miss Mittagong	J. Rosario	B. Cecil
5	Champagne d'Oro	V. Espinoza	E. Guillot
6	Bauble Queen	R. Bejarano	J. Kruljac
7	City to City	G. Gomez	J. Hollendorfer

Sunday's Grade II $150,000 Bayakoa Handicap for fillies and mares will have City to City as the betting favorite. The horse won the Palomar Handicap at Del Mar back in September and last time out she was second in the Las Palmas Stakes at Santa Anita.

"City to City is the horse to beat," said Dan Ward, who is the assistant to trainer Jerry Hollendorfer. "We were thinking about entering her in the Matriarch but decided to wait another week. Washington Bridge is the stablemate to City to City and won the Bayakoa last year but the horse has lost all eight races since getting that win.

The rest of the field for the Bayakoa has Bauble Queen, Champagne d'Oro, Ellafitz, Love Theway Youare and Miss Mittagong.