Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Stormy Liberal goes clockwise in drill for Hong Kong Sprint
DEL MAR, Calif. – Toward the end of regular training hours Thursday at San Luis Rey Downs, Stormy Liberal, the winner of the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint, stepped onto the track and worked. It would have been unexceptional, except for one thing: the direction in which he traveled.
Stormy Liberal went a halfmile turning to the right – going clockwise – the opposite of how races are run here, but in preparation for what is next for him: a trip to Hong Kong for a 1,200-meter (about sixfurlong) race at Sha Tin, where the one turn is to the right. The drill was timed in 49.20 seconds.
“They gave us permission to work the wrong way,” said Peter Miller, who trains Stormy Liberal. “It’s one of the nice things about being at a small facility like that. He handled the turn, hit his leads right on cue.”
The Hong Kong Sprint, worth $18.5 million Hong Kong – about $2.4 million U.S. – is one of four prestigious races run at Sha Tin on Dec. 10. Miller said Stormy Liberal is scheduled to work twice more at San Luis Rey Downs, both times turning right, before leaving for Hong Kong on approximately Dec. 1.
“He might have one work there,” Miller said.
Large fields for juvenile stakes
So many trainers are eager to run 2-year-olds on the grass at Del Mar that both graded turf stakes for juveniles during the final week of the meet should have bulky fields.
Raucous, winner of the Chelsey Flower at Aqueduct in her last start, is expected to ship in and head the field of fillies in the Grade 3, $100,000 Jimmy Durante at one mile Nov. 25. Flavien Prat has the call on Raucous, who is trained by Christopher Clement.
Others likely for the Durante include Casino Red, Daddy Is a Legend, Deep Breath, Factorofwon, Multiplayer, Polished, Sappho, Secret Spice, Thewayiam, and Yesterday’s News. Both Himmah and One Fast Broad are possible.
Richard Mandella said that Retro, who did not draw into the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf and was scratched from a subsequent allowance race with a minor illness, would not run after disappointing in a recent workout. “She wasn’t herself,” he said. Prat also appears well mounted in the Grade 3, $100,000 Cecil B. DeMille Stakes on Nov. 26, in which he will ride the impressive maiden winner Inscom for trainer Simon Callaghan. Others likely for the one-mile DeMille include Armour Plate, Big Buzz, Brave Helios, Colonel Cash, Cosa Nostra, Count Alexander, Golden Dragon, King Eddie, Kylemore, and Mantracker.
Trainer Eddie Truman is eager to run Armour Plate.
“He’s moving forward,” Truman said Friday morning. “He’s going to run really well.”
Armour Plate was third behind My Boy Jack and Count Alexander in the Zuma Beach Stakes at Santa Anita in his last start. My Boy Jack subsequently was seventh of 14 in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf.
Top of the Game eyes Native Diver
Top of the Game, who returned from an eight-month layoff to score a runaway victory in the Comma to the Top Stakes last month over Hoppertunity, heads the likely field for the Grade 3, $100,000 Native Diver Stakes on Nov. 25.
The Native Diver, at 1 1/16 miles, is the lone dirt race of the eight stakes to be run the final week of the Del Mar meet, and could have the smallest field, with Seattle Serenade and just a handful of others likely to run.
The globe-trotting Mubtaahij, eighth in the Breeders’ Cup Classic on Nov. 4, worked five furlongs in 1:00.20 on Thursday at Santa Anita, but on Friday trainer Bob Baffert said he “hadn’t made up his mind yet” as to whether Mubtaahij would be wheeled back in the Native Diver.
In March, Mubtaahij finished fourth in the Dubai World Cup.
It Tiz Well may run in Bayakoa
A minor foot issue kept It Tiz Well out of the Breeders’ Cup Distaff earlier this month, but she worked Thursday at Santa Anita and could return as soon as the Grade 2, $200,000 Bayakoa Stakes at Los Alamitos on Dec. 3, trainer Jerry Hollendorfer said Friday.
“She’s coming along good,” Hollendorfer said. “She had bruising on the frogs of both feet. We backed off, but she stayed in training.”
It Tiz Well worked six furlongs in 1:15 at Santa Anita on Oct. 25, and days later Hollendorfer declared her out of the Distaff. She went a halfmile in 48.80 seconds Thursday. She’d have time for two more works before the 1 1/16mile Bayakoa.
It Tiz Well, 3, won the Cotillion Stakes at Parx in her last start, beating likely 3-year-old filly champion Abel Tasman. She also was second in the Alabama Stakes at Saratoga.
Masochistic back on work tab
The top sprinter Masochistic returned to the work tab for his new trainer, Bob Baffert, on Friday morning at Santa Anita and zipped a half-mile in 47 seconds, the best time of 36 at the distance.
Masochistic, 7, has not raced since May, when he finished 13th of 14 in the Churchill Downs Stakes in only his second start of the year. He was then transferred by his owners, Will Shamlian and Samantha Siegel, to Baffert from Ron Ellis.
Masochistic finished second in the 2016 Breeders’ Cup Sprint, but subsequently was disqualified after testing positive for steroids. The Breeders’ Cup, by rule, then barred both Masochistic and Ellis from competing in this year’s event at Del Mar.