Found My Ball makes debut in I’m Smokin

In keeping with the weirdness of 2020, the top contenders Friday in the I’m Smokin Stakes at Del Mar include a first-time starter and a last-place finisher. How kooky is that?

Not as crazy as it sounds, even if Found My Ball has never started and Touchdown Brown followed his smashing debut by finishing dead last at evenmoney.

Inexperience aside, Found My Ball already casts a long shadow.

“He seems like he has aboveaverage talent,” trainer Doug O’Neill said. “He is close to 17 hands, but he’s got the agility of a smaller horse. For his size, he’s amazingly quick on his feet.”

As for Touchdown Brown, he got sacked in the Graduation Stakes a month ago. He spooked when a rival crossed in front of him, steadied, dropped out, and trailed. With blinkers and a jockey change Friday on Touchdown Brown, trainer Rafael Becerra expects him to reproduce his debut romp two starts back.

Found My Ball and Touchdown Brown face a deep field in the $100,000 I’m Smokin, a six-furlong race for Californiabred 2-year-olds. Rivals include Graduation one-two finishers Positivity and Good With People; maiden winners Jazz Hands, Tacoflavoredkisses, Pappy Boyington, and Doc Adams; and maidens Scooby and Alpine Thunder.

The quality of the field is uncertain, similar to the 2018 I’m Smokin won by first-time starter Listing for ownerbreeder J. Paul Reddam and trainer Ben Cecil. Found My Ball, owned and bred by Reddam, and also sired by Square Eddie, might be better.

Found My Ball is a full sibling to Grade 1 winner Ralis and multiple stakes winner B Squared.

“All three of them are big, good-looking athletes,” O’Neill said. “This guy, I don’t want to jinx him, but he seems a bit more precocious.”

A strapping chestnut, Found My Ball worked a visually impressive five-furlong team gate work Aug. 23 followed by an easy half Aug. 30.

“He’s really taken to the Del Mar surface; his works have been great over it,” O’Neill said. “He looks like he’s got the gate speed to put himself in a good position. I think he’s got the class and stamina to be right there.”

Mario Gutierrez rides. Touchdown Brown switches from jockey Evin Roman to Juan Hernandez, and from post 3 to 7, following a botched trip in the Graduation.

“I was shocked,” Becerra said. “I don’t know if it was a mistake by my rider, or my horse just got really shy. That’s why I put blinkers on him, to focus more on business. I’m happy to see the speed inside, because I’m outside. I have a good post.”

The pace is likely to be set by Good With People, who blew a four-length lead in the stretch of the 5 1/2-furlong Graduation, won by Positivity. Positivity is the 7-2 program favorite in the I’m Smokin, his first start since a private purchase and transfer from Luis Mendez to Paddy Gallagher.