Del Mar’s Polytrack Era Begins
– Slowly. Race two was the first run over the new surface and the fractions for the six furlong affair were :22.68, :47.09, and 1:00.29, with a final fraction of :13.66. But the surface seemed to play fair through the afternoon. Pressers and stalkers did just fine, closers didn’t dominate. Watching from 3,000 miles away, the track looked firm, the kickback minimal, and only a few horses appeared uncertain about what was under their feet. “They’re gripping it, but it’s a lot different from anything they’ve ever been on,” jockey Richard Migliore told DRF after the second race. “It’s going to take some time for some of them to get used to it.” Migliore also warned handicappers that the surface was “tiring” and “You’re going to want a horse that makes one run. You don’t want a horse that’s going to be fighting you.”
– Trainer Richard Mandella won the day’s third, the two-year-old maiden special Bob Baffert’s Maimonides was scratched from, with 9-1 first time starter Kanan Dume, who tracked early speed Good Man Dan into the stretch, then held off even-money favorite Coast Guard to win by a neck. Look for all three to come back. Kanan Dume is by Malibu Moon, out of the late turf stakes-winning mare Trishdye, euthanized for complications following his birth.
– The unbeaten filly Fleetheart returns on Saturday, when she’ll try turf and stakes company for the first time in the Osunitas Handicap. Fleetheart is a half-sister to turf stakes winner Guardianofthegate, as pointed out in this earlier post, and she’s proven herself a tough, tactical runner in all four of her career starts.
