O'Neill won't appeal, vacation in order

Okay, so this is how it goes. Trainer Doug O'Neill said Friday that he has dropped an appeal of a 15-day suspension for a total carbon dioxide overage in Illinois in April. The penalty will run from Wednesday through July 14. But, instead of running his horses in his assistants name, Leandro Mora, all of O'Neill's horses will remain in the barn until the end of the suspension on July 14.

O'Neill said he spent Friday afternoon consulting with his owners about the implications of the suspension and that a majority of them were not in favor of him running horses in the name of his assistant, Leandro Mora, during the suspension. O'Neill said the policy of having no runners also would apply to stakes horses, including Enriched in the $150,000 American Handicap on July 4.

Since O'Neill already has had 134 starters at the Hollywood Park meeting, this stinks of O'Neill's way of trying to hurt and or prevent Hollywood Park from being able to fill races with a horse shortage that has already plagued Southern California.

We are glad to see that late Sunday Hollywood Park was able to fill both Thursday's and Friday's race cards without any hitches and hope the rest of the Hollywood Park meeting goes off without any more cancellations of race cards due to horse shortages.

One has to wonder how Turning Top was allowed to go off at 4/1 in Saturday's Beverly Hills Handicap and pay a robust $10.40 for her win. Winning for the fourth time in a row now for trainer Simon Callaghan, under Brice Blanc, this 4-year-old filly is now a Grade III Stakes winner. Look for lots more of her down the road.

The Usual Q.T. returned to life in Sunday's fifth race at $3.20 and Unzip Me at her streak halted in Sunday's Robert B. Kerlan Memorial Handicap vs. the boys. While running a winning race, she just failed to hold off the charges of both My Summer Slew and Stoneside late.

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