Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Ransom the Moon stays home
CYPRESS, Calif. – Hurricane Florence is keeping top sprinter Ransom the Moon in California.
Trainer Phil D’Amato said Thursday that Ransom the Moon, the winner of the Grade 1 Bing Crosby Stakes at Del Mar in July and a leading candidate for the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Churchill Downs on Nov. 3, will have his next start in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Sprint Championship on Oct. 6.
Previously, Ransom the Moon was expected to start in the Frank De Francis Memorial Dash at Laurel, which has been postponed from Saturday to Sept. 22 because of expected poor conditions on the East Coast this weekend due to the hurricane.
D’Amato said he is worried about the conditions in Maryland not only this weekend, but next week as well.
“The weather is so bad there, we’re going to be safe,” D’Amato said. “Our ultimate goal is the Breeders’ Cup. It’s better to play it safe.”
The $300,000 Santa Anita Sprint Championship is run at six furlongs. Ransom the Moon was fourth in the race last year.
Owned by Agave Racing Stable and Jeffry Wilke, Ransom the Moon earned an automatic berth to the BC Sprint with his win in the Bing Crosby Stakes at six furlongs on July 28. Ransom the Moon was entered in the Grade 2 Pat O’Brien Stakes at seven furlongs at Del Mar on Aug. 25, but was withdrawn in favor of an intended start in the $250,000 De Francis Dash.
Ransom the Moon has won 6 of 24 starts and earned $848,829. Last November, Ransom the Moon was fifth in the BC Sprint at Del Mar.
D’Amato has two other hopefuls on course for the Breeders’ Cup in the turf runners Fashion Business and Hunt.
Fashion Business won the Grade 2 Del Mar Handicap at 1 3/8 miles on turf on Aug. 18, earning an automatic berth for the BC Turf. Fashion Business is likely to start in the Grade 2 John Henry Turf Championship at 1 1/4 miles on turf at Santa Anita on Sept. 30.
Hunt is bound for the BC Mile, and earned a fees-paid berth to the race with a win in the Shoemaker Mile at Santa Anita on May 28. More recently, Hunt was sixth in the Grade 2 Del Mar Mile on turf Aug. 19.
Dabster stretches for Special
Dabster, the winner of the Harry Brubaker Stakes at Del Mar on Aug. 22, will start in the longest race of his career in Sunday’s $100,000 Los Alamitos Special at 1 1/4 miles.
Trainer Bob Baffert indicated in a text message Thursday that Dabster will start in the newly created race, which is restricted to horses that have not won a stakes worth $50,000 or more to the winner at a mile or over. Baffert is in Kentucky this week at the Keeneland September yearling sale.
Earlier in the summer, Dabster was third behind Catalina Cruiser in the Grade 2 San Diego Handicap at 1 1/16 miles. Catalina Cruiser later won the Grade 2 Pat O’Brien Stakes and is rated as one of the leading older horses in California.
The Los Alamitos Special has a projected field of seven. Aside from Dabster, the candidates include Divisor, Giant Influence, Indian Mantuana, Little Scotty, Twentytwentyvision, and Ya Gotta Wanna.
Ya Gotta Wanna, trained by Phil D’Amato, was second in the Grade 2 Del Mar Handicap at 1 3/8 miles on turf on Aug. 18 in his stakes debut. The Los Alamitos Special will be his first start on dirt since a fourth in a $40,000 claimer for maidens at Del Mar last November.
Tatters to Riches to Remington
Tatters to Riches, the winner of the Shared Belief Stakes at Del Mar on Aug. 25, is scheduled to start in the Grade 3 Oklahoma Derby at Remington Park on Sept. 30, co-owner Tim Cohen said Thursday.
Trained by Jeff Mullins, Tatters to Riches has won 3 of 4 starts and earned $133,545. Tatters to Riches is unbeaten in two starts this year, an optional claimer at Del Mar on Aug. 4 and the Shared Belief Stakes at a mile.
The $400,000 Oklahoma Derby is run at 1 1/8 miles and will be the longest race in the career of Tatters to Riches, who is owned by Cohen’s Rancho Temescal and his father Jed’s Red Baron’s Barn.
By Union Rags, Tatters to Riches was purchased for $1 million at a 2-year-olds in training sale last year.