Itsinthepost needs better trip

ARCADIA, Calif. – A lot happens during a turf marathon – bad trips that prevent the best horse from winning, trips that prevent other horses from giving a top performance. But quantifying trouble – how many lengths? – is purely subjective. Go ahead, disagree.

It is a fact that Hunt crossed the wire first six weeks ago in the Grade 2 Del Mar Turf Handicap. It is an opinion that tough-trip runner-up Itsinthepost, the favorite, was best.

Hunt and Itsinthepost meet again Sunday in the Grade 2 John Henry Turf Championship at Santa Anita. Bettors might discount the finish position and wager on two-time Grade 2 winner Itsinthepost, who could have won last out except for bad luck.

“He didn’t break,” jockey Tyler Baze said. “Usually, he breaks on top, and I get to place him where I want. But the other day, we stood there for a long time, and he just didn’t break.”

Itsinthepost did not break excessively slowly but just enough to deny him a forward position. The miscue allowed Hunt and jockey Flavien Prat to take the spot Baze was looking for – forwardly placed and in the clear.

“That’s exactly where I wanted to be,” Baze said. “He had the position I wanted the whole race, so I kind of had to follow him around there.”

Perhaps it would not have been a problem except that Itsinthepost, buried inside, ran into a jam into the far turn.

“I might have gotten into a little traffic at the threeeighths,” Baze said. “I might have had a little trouble.”

Itsinthepost steadied, dropped back, and recovered. By then, Hunt was dashing for home. Itsinthepost followed inside, finished fast, and missed by three-quarters of a length.

Did the best horse win? Probably not. But what makes Hunt so effective is that he creates his own luck.

“He’s got tactical speed, and he’s got a really good turn of foot,” trainer Phil D’Amato said. “With blinkers, it gives him a little bit more focus.”

And with back-to-back Grade 2 wins, Hunt replaced Ashleyluvssugar as the top distance turf horse in California. Hunt’s win in the Del Mar Handicap, a Breeders’ Cup Challenge race, earned him a fees-paid berth in the BC Turf. So, why is he running Sunday, when so many other BC candidates skip the final round of preps?

D’Amato has an explanation for that, too. “He comes out of his races so good that I would rather run him in this race and use this as a prep and not have to train so hard going into the Breeders’ Cup.”

Hunt and Itsinthepost are the principals in the $200,000 John Henry Turf Championship, a 1 1/4-mile turf race that includes an upset candidate in Up With the Birds, seventh in the Del Mar Handicap.

His jockey, Jamie Theriot, accurately described his nowhere-to-go position from the far turn into the lane.

“I ate him for an eighth of a mile,” he said, adding that his optimistic weekend plan is to “light up the board.”

It could happen. Up With the Birds was stalled in traffic into the stretch, finished with a rush, but had too much to do. D’Amato, who trains both Hunt and Up With the Birds, agrees that Up With the Birds has an upset chance if Theriot pulls the trigger sooner.

“He was a little unlucky the other day,” D’Amato said.

The John Henry is race 7 of nine on Sunday.