Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
West Coast ready for Dubai
ARCADIA, Calif. – Breakfast with champions.
That was the theme at Santa Anita on Sunday morning, as a trio of Eclipse Award winners – West Coast, Roy H, and Unique Bella – worked for upcoming races, with two of them bound for Dubai.
West Coast, last year’s champion 3-year-old male, will be favored in the Dubai World Cup on March 31, and he seems to be thriving since his second-place finish in the Pegasus World Cup two months ago. He went six furlongs in 1:11.80 under jockey Martin Garcia. Mike Smith has the mount in Dubai.
“He went great,” said his trainer, Bob Baffert. “He couldn’t be doing any better. He picked the right time to be doing well. He came through there like nothing, and he’s not a really good work horse.”
Roy H, last year’s champion male sprinter, worked a halfmile in 49.60 seconds for trainer Peter Miller in advance of the Golden Shaheen on the World Cup undercard.
Unique Bella, who missed the Santa Margarita on Saturday owing to a recent cough, got back to work for trainer Jerry Hollendorfer and looked sensational, going five furlongs so effortlessly under Smith that clockers designated her 59-second drill as “breezing,” which is not given out often in California.
“She dragged me around there,” Smith said. “I was just a toy, something to make it official. It’s unbelievable the things she can do. She was just having fun. She came off the track nice and happy.”
Unique Bella was last year’s champion female sprinter, but she will concentrate on twoturn races this year. Assuming she has no unforeseen setbacks, her next scheduled start is the Apple Blossom at Oaklawn next month.
In addition to that trio, two other World Cup runners – Mubtaahij and Pavel – also worked Sunday.
Mubtaahij went a half-mile in 48.80 seconds under Victor Espinoza, who will ride him in the World Cup for Baffert. He most recently was second in the Santa Anita Handicap on March 10, with Smith up that day.
Pavel also went a half-mile, in 50.80 seconds for trainer Doug O’Neill.
All the Dubai-bound runners were scheduled to leave California early Tuesday morning.
Hoppertunity to Churchill
A number of top trainers often leave Santa Anita in the spring with their better horses, owing to rich opportunities surrounding the Triple Crown races, and this year Bob Baffert said he will have a string at Churchill Downs. His runners there will be headed by multiple Grade 1 winner Hoppertunity, who is not going to the Dubai World Cup and instead is being pointed to the Alysheba at Churchill Downs on Kentucky Derby weekend, Baffert said.
“He likes the softer tracks back there,” Baffert said of Hoppertunity, who has won the Clark at Churchill and the Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont during his 29-race career. Hoppertunity has not raced since finishing fourth in the San Antonio at Santa Anita on Dec. 26.