Hard Aces finds softer landing spot

DEL MAR, Calif. – The days of Grade 1 dirt races are over for Hard Aces.

This weekend, Hard Aces is expected to start in Saturday’s Grade 2 Del Mar Handicap at 1 3/8 miles on turf – and not the Grade 1 Pacific Classic at 1 1/4 miles on dirt the same day.

Hard Aces had his final major exercise Sunday, working five furlongs in 1:00.60.

“We’ll keep him away from the Grade 1 horses,” trainer John Sadler said Sunday. “It’s time to try something a little marathony.”

The $200,000 Del Mar Handicap is the longest turf stakes for males at the track’s summer meeting. On July 26, Hard Aces was second by a nose in the Grade 3 Cougar II Handicap at 1 1/2 miles on dirt to Curlin Road, who is bound for the Pacific Classic.

“He ran so good,” Sadler said. “We were happy with him.”

The Del Mar Handicap will be the first start on turf for Hard Aces since a sixth in the Grade 3 Fair Grounds Handicap in February 2014, when he was trained by Larry Jones. Hard Aces was bought by Pete and Kosta Hronis and sent to Sadler in early 2015.

Since joining Sadler’s stable, Hard Aces has won 3 of 24 starts and earned $1,012,845. His most prestigious win was the Grade 1 Gold Cup at Santa Anita in June 2015 as a 5-yearold.

The Del Mar Handicap will be an open race with a large field. The candidates include 2016 winner Ashleyluvssugar as well as Big John B, Flamboyant, He Will, Hunt, Inordinate, Itsinthepost, Monster Bea, Prime Attraction, and Up With the Birds.

Hunt won the Grade 2 Eddie Read Stakes at 1 1/8 miles on turf July 22. Itsinthepost won two Grade 2 turf races at 1 1/2 miles earlier this year – the San Luis Rey Stakes at Santa Anita in March and the Elkhorn Stakes at Keeneland in April.

The winner of the Del Mar Handicap receives a fees-paid berth in the Breeders’ Cup Turf here Nov. 4.

There are three graded stakes on the Saturday program – the Pacific Classic, the Del Mar Handicap, and the Grade 1, $300,000 Del Mar Oaks at 1 1/8 miles on turf for 3-yearold fillies.

Madam Dancealot, winner of the Grade 2 San Clemente Handicap at a mile on turf July 23, is expected to be part of a large field in the Del Mar Oaks that will include Beau Recall, Blame It On Alphie, Con Te Partiro, Dream Dancing, Kathy’s Song, Kenda, Meadowsweet, Pacific Wind, Tapped, and Vexatious.

Sunday’s main race is the Grade 2 Del Mar Mile on turf, led by 2016 race winner Midnight Storm. Expected for the $200,000 Del Mar Mile are Bal a Bali, winner of the Grade 1 Frank Kilroe Mile in March and Shoemaker Mile in June, along with Blackjackcat, Om, and Vyjack.

Smith’s murderer’s row work

Jockey Mike Smith was out early Monday morning at Del Mar to watch Arrogate in his final drill for Saturday’s Pacific Classic, but the morning also included a showcase for two of the horses he will be riding the following Saturday, Aug. 26, at Saratoga, as both West Coast and American Anthem continued to train forwardly for the Travers card.

West Coast is headed to the Grade 1, $1.25 million Travers itself. He worked five furlongs in 1:00.20 under jockey Martin Garcia, who reported to Baffert via radio after the work that West Coast was “not even blowing. Nada.”

American Anthem, also with Garcia, worked earlier in the morning and went five furlongs in 1:00.80 while tuning up for the Grade 1, $500,000 Allen Jerkens – formerly the King’s Bishop – at seven furlongs for 3-year-olds.

Smith has a sensational lineup of California-based horses for the Travers card. In addition to those two, he also will ride Drefong for Baffert in the Grade 1, $600,000 Forego for sprinters and Songbird in the Grade 1, $700,000 Personal Ensign for females.

Drefong worked a half-mile from the gate Saturday morning, a move that Baffert said was done to get him off the starter’s list following his disastrous run in the Grade 1 Bing Crosby on July 29, when he ducked in soon after the start, dislodging Smith.

Baffert said the work – a half-mile in 48.80 – went as planned and that Drefong was on course for the Forego.

The Bing Crosby was the first start for Drefong since his win in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint last fall at Santa Anita, which secured him the Eclipse Award as champion male sprinter of 2016. His main goal this year is a title defense in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint on Nov. 4 here at Del Mar.

The Forego will bring Drefong back to the site of the track where he won the Grade 1 King’s Bishop last summer.

Songbird, who had been nominated to the Pacific Classic, was officially ruled out of that race and in the Personal Ensign after she worked five furlongs in 1:01 early Sunday morning at Del Mar for trainer Jerry Hollendorfer. Del Mar’s clockers labeled the work breezing, the only work so denoted among the 230 drills on both dirt and turf Sunday.