Acclamation, front-runner for Horse of the Meet honors at
Hollywood Park, seeks to put an exclamation point on a banner session when he
carries high weight of 124 pounds in the Sunset Handicap, closing-day feature
Sunday.
Acclamation, a 5-year-old horse who has already won the
Grade I Charles Whittingham Memorial Handicap and Grade II Jim Murray Memorial
Handicap on the turf, seeks to become the first horse to win the three distance
grass stakes in the same year.
“His record at Hollywood Park does have a lot to do with the
decision to enter in the Sunset,” said trainer Don Warren Thursday from his
Santa Anita base. “He has been awesome on that turf.”
Acclamation has recorded five firsts and two thirds in eight
starts on the Inglewood lawn and earned $556,860. He is 1-for-17 elsewhere.
The 124-pound weight assignment would be the most carried by
a Sunset winner since Sandpit won under that impost in 1995. Acclamation will
spot eight rivals from eight to 16 pounds in the Grade III test at 1 ½ miles.
Joe Talamo has the return call on the California-bred son of
Unusual Heat.