Acclimate at 8 looks very much like Acclimate at 5

A stable truly has depth when a morning-line favorite is scratched and another runner from the barn assumes the role of favorite and succeeds hours later.

Say the Word was withdrawn from Saturday’s Grade 3 San Luis Rey Stakes after sustaining a cut in a stall incident on race morning, trainer Phil D’Amato said. That afternoon, Acclimate was sent off favored, took his usual position at the front, and held off a sustained threat from Dicey Mo Chara to win his first stakes since June.

Acclimate is an 8-year-old gelding who is not acting his age.

“To me he trains as good in the mornings and runs as good in the afternoons at 8 as he did at 5,” D’Amato said. “He in a good groove right now.”

D’Amato’s runners may be the focus of the division in coming months. Friar’s Road, the good-looking winner of the Grade 2 San Marcos Stakes at 1 1/4 miles on turf on Jan. 30, is currently being rested after emerging from that race “jarred up,” trainer Michael McCarthy said in a text message on Sunday.

McCarthy said Friar’s Road will be pointed to a fall campaign.

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Acclimate, who frequently sets the pace, has won 8 of 31 starts and earned $763,372 in a career that included two appearances in $20,000 claiming races for maidens at Del Mar and Los Alamitos in 2018.

Owned by a partnership that includes the estate of Bud Johnston and Timmy Time Racing, Acclimate was last of 14 in the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Del Mar last November and second by a length later that month to Say the Word in the Grade 2 Hollywood Turf Cup.

Acclimate was last of five in the Grade 2 San Marcos Stakes at 1 1/4 miles on Jan. 30 in his first start this year after jockey Ricky Gonzalez lost his whip in the stretch. Acclimate had already been passed, so the incident did not affect his ability to stay with Friar’s Road, who won by 4 1/4 lengths.

D’Amato had three of the nine entrants in the $126,000 San Luis Rey Stakes at 1 1/2 miles, but only two runners. Red King finished fifth. Say the Word suffered a minor injury on the wrong morning, D’Amato said, and was back on the track on Sunday.

“He just banged it,” D’Amato said Sunday. “It had one little trickle of blood, the tiniest spot.

“We treated him with antibiotics and cleaned up the leg. We jogged him today. If something is not perfect, why chance it? We erred on the side of caution.”

Acclimate and Say the Word are unlikely to face each other in their next starts. Acclimate is a candidate for the Grade 3 San Juan Capistrano Stakes at about 1 3/4 miles on turf on June 19, the closing day of the current meeting.

“That would be the next logical spot for him,” D’Amato said.

Say the Word, who was third in the San Marcos Stakes, is a candidate for the Grade 2 Elkhorn Stakes, a $350,000 race at 1 1/2 miles on turf at Keeneland on April 23. Say the Word won the 2021 Elkhorn, the first of two stakes wins during that season for the now 7-year-old gelding.

The BC Turf will be run at Keeneland on Nov. 5 and that race is a long-range goal for Say the Word.

“We’ll see if he likes the track as much as he did last year,” D’Amato said.

Count Again, the winner of the Grade 1 Frank Kilroe Mile at Santa Anita on March 5, remains on course for the Grade 1 Maker’s Mark Mile on turf at Keeneland in April, D’Amato said.

“Spacing-wide, it’s good timing,” he said.

The stable has two 4-year-old Irish-bred fillies bound for stakes this spring.

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Going Global, a six-time stakes winner in 2021, is scheduled to have her 2022 debut in the Grade 2 Royal Heroine Stakes at a mile for fillies and mares on turf on April 9, D’Amato said.

Excelerina is a candidate for the Grade 3 Wilshire Stakes at a mile for fillies and mares on May 1 after winning a maiden special weight race on Feb. 6 in her American debut and an allowance race on Friday. Those races were run at 1 1/8 miles.