Omaha Beach wins SA thriller in return
LEXINGTON, Ky. — The Arkansas Derby winner is back, and gutty as ever.
A star-crossed 3-year-old season for Omaha Beach may not be over after his stirring duel with Shancelot in Saturday’s Santa Anita Sprint Championship. A February maiden winner over the same track, Omaha Beach prevailed by a head in Grade 1 company with a rail-skimming ride by Mike Smith. It was a popular decision at Oaklawn Park, where Omaha Beach won the Grade 2 Rebel and Grade 1 Arkansas Derby in succession, and the press box at Keeneland Race Course.
Trainer Richard Mandella, who like Smith is a Hall of Famer, had good news Sunday, though not tipping his hand about the colt’s next start.
“He came out in great shape. Ate up and was looking for more feed,” Mandella said. “Couldn’t be happier. He or I.”
Saturday’s victory, his second in a Grade 1 stake, gave Omaha Beach a free berth into the Grade 1 $2 million Breeders’ Cup Sprint, although the War Front colt is also being considered for the $1 million BC Dirt Mile or $6 million BC Classic at 1 1/4 miles. Mandella said he’ll consider his options, made more convenient by stabling at Santa Anita, host to horse racing’s world championships Nov. 1 and 2.
“There won’t be any decision made until I get him back to the track next week,” Mandella said. “I’ll give him some days off; he deserves it.
“The biggest question of the three is the Classic. That was what we always wanted to do,” he said. “But with all the setbacks, I wouldn’t consider that if it was asking too much too quick. He just ran six furlongs and [the Classic] is 27 days away. So it isn’t like I have time to build him up. I’m not saying no, but that would be the concern.”
Second choice in the betting to odds-on Shancelot, a 3-year-old Grade 2 winner at Saratoga Race Course, Omaha Beach paid $7.20 to win after six furlongs in 1:08.79, showing the grittiness he displayed in the spring.
Owner Rick Porter’s colt gained attention beating two Bob Baffert trainees at Oaklawn Park, Game Winner in the Rebel and Improbable in the Arkansas Derby. An entrapped epiglottis knocked Omaha Beach out of the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby, for which he was program favorite. Mandella penciled in September’s Grade 1 Pennsylvania Derby as a return race but kept the colt in California after a slow workout.
Switching distances from a six-furlong sprint to the 10-furlong BC Classic with Omaha Beach gives Mandella pause.
“I think there is no doubt he’s the type of horse that could do that,” Mandella said. “But would it be good for him? That’s my concern. I want to do right by him.”