The Los Alamitos Futurity and the Starlet top the weekend of action in California and both races will shed light on the national champions. The Los Alamitos Futurity has been attached to the lending company CashCall and has taken its name and the $300,000-guaranteed Starlet, for fillies, stands alone. Both Grade 1 events will be run at a mile and a sixteenth.
The winner of the $300,000 Los Alamitos Futurity has some big shoes to fill as the race has been productive over the years. Originally run as the Hollywood Futurity, six Futurity starters have gone on to win the Kentucky Derby, the last being Giacomo in 2005. Six other Futurity starters have won Triple Crown races. In 2013, Shared Belief won this race and also won the Eclipse Award as a juvenile.
Last year Bob Baffert’s student Mor Spirit earned an 88 Beyer Speed Figure taking the Los Alamitos Futurity and eventually ran second to Exaggerator in the Kentucky Derby. Baffert is back for more this year with the likely favorite Mastery, who will be trying to carry his speed routing for the first time. The runner is unbeaten in his two starts after winning the Grade 3 Bob Hope last month and Baffert is still tinkering. He adds blinkers to the equation today for Mastery and Baffert has been solid with this ploy. He has run six horses in the last five years that have blinkers on for the first time and stretch out from a sprint to a route. One has won and 5 have run second.
Baffert, who has won this race eight times including the last two years, will also saddle Show Me Da Latte. The son of Midnight Lute controlled the pace and the outcome in his first start, a dirt route at Santa Anita with a 72 Beyer. Show Me Da Latte is bred to be a star as his dam Tough Tiz’s Sis won multiple Grade 1s and banked over $900,000. This colt’s full-sister Tiz Midnight was a Grade 2 winner routing that earned nearly $350,000 taking four of eleven starts.
Trainer Doug O’Neill’s two runners bookend the Los Alamitos Futurity field. His charge Dangerfield didn’t get any respect from Pleasanton fans when he broke his maiden in the Oak Tree Juvenile there in October. His other runner Irap will be trying to do something that is very difficult and that’s break his maiden in a Grade 1 stakes. The one thing Irap has going for him is that he is a sibling to Speightstown, who won the Breeders’ Cup Sprint in 2004 but was purely a sprinter.
Bobby Abu Dubai completes the Los Alamitos Futurity five-pack but there are some stamina concerns. He won his only race sprinting but was losing ground late and held on by just a head.
Baffert is also represented in the Starlet by a pair of runners. His racer Fact of Life has the advantage of graduating at Los Alamitos but he lost his other start. The horse to beat and the most accomplished in the field is Baffert’s Amercan Gal. She has been favored every time, she won her first two starts and then was a troubled third beaten four lengths in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies. She broke slowly in that race and lost her best chance.
Union Strike figures to give the Baffert pair a run for their money. She broke slowly in her debut, won in game style in the Del Mar Debutante and then was mid-pack in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies when she was rank and forced to steady.
The wild card in the Starlet is Berned. She was educated in her racing debut at Saratoga and then stretch out to a mile and won as the favorite at Belmont in September. Rested after that race until the Grade 3 Tempted at Aqueduct just over a month ago, Berned was never comfortable when fighting the bit. She was forced to check and then finished with good energy. Berned was flattered when the winner of the Tempted repeated in the Grade 2 Demoiselle November 26 at the Big A with an 80 Beyer. Berned is trained by Tom Albertrani, who knows what to do with a good horse. Albertrani has won a plethora of Grade 1 races including the Preakness Stakes in 2006.
When going to the betting windows for these races know that value will not be there in the Los Alamitos Futurity but Mastery looks very solid and will be very tough to beat. As far as the Starlet is concerned, Berned will be a bit of a price and she has enough upside to get the job done.
Good luck.
