Field Pass has pace advantage

DEL MAR, Calif. – Seven weeks later and more than 2,800 miles from where they last met, Sacred Life and Field Pass continue their 2021 rivalry on Saturday at Del Mar in the Grade 2, $250,000 Seabiscuit Handicap, the first of three graded stakes to be run on the penultimate day of this fall meeting.

Sacred Life got the best of Field Pass last time out Oct. 10 in the Grade 3 Knickerbocker at Belmont Park, surging in the final yards to win that 1 1/8-mile race by a head. It was the second time this year they’d met, and the second time Sacred Life had beaten Field Pass, as they were third and fourth, respectively, in the Grade 1 Maker’s Mark Mile at Keeneland when commencing their 2021 campaigns.

They meet in the middle – from a distance standpoint – in the Seabiscuit, a 1 1/16-mile race that drew five other older grass runners, including Flop Shot, a stablemate of Sacred Life’s from Chad Brown’s deep roster.

Field Pass arrived here Tuesday night and was reunited with an old friend, Nolan Ramsey, the assistant who has overseen the Mike Maker stable locally in recent months.

“He handled the ship well. He’s a classy horse, knows the drill,” Ramsey said in his Del Mar stable office Thursday morning.

“I was around him as a 2-year-old, and here and there as a 3-year-old,” Ramsey said. “He’s an aggressive horse.”

Field Pass likes to be forwardly placed. He found himself on the lead last time when eventually run down by Sacred Life, but he scored his lone win in six tries this year when given a stalking trip, a scenario that could play out this time, with Lambeau and even Bob and Jackie likely to head toward the front.

A win by Field Pass would be a welcome conclusion to Ramsey’s stay here, but he’s hoping to return.

“I’ve enjoyed it here,” he said. “I’m heading to Gulfstream for the Championship meet, but we’ll have horses at Turfway and Gulfstream, Oaklawn, Fair Grounds.

“What’s one more?” he said, laughing.

Ramsey has even more important things on his plate. He understandably beams when discussing the upcoming arrival of he and wife Katie’s first child, a girl, due at the end of January.

“Her due date is Pegasus Day,” he said.

To send Ramsey out of here on a high note, Field Pass will have to turn back the formidable Brown duo.

Sacred Life has a sharp closing kick, and should get ample speed into which to rally. Jose Ortiz, who rode him in the Knickerbocker, is back aboard.

Flop Shot has plenty of upside. He is making the third start of his form cycle following a 15-month layoff, during which time he was gelded. He has finished second in both his races this year, and it took a furious finish from stablemate Value Engineering to deny him a victory last time out at Belmont Park.

Indian Peak, who won the California Flag for statebreds down the hill at Santa Anita last time out, and Majestic Eagle, making his third straight appearance in this race, complete the field.