Alexis Tangier's return to turf a no-brainer
DEL MAR, Calif. – The one time Alexis Tangier ran on the turf, she won. The three times she has run on the main track, she has lost. In the featured seventh race on Wednesday at Del Mar, she returns to the turf. The logic was simple.
Said Richard Mandella on Monday morning: “I think she needs for her trainer to learn not to run her on the main track.”
Mandella is her trainer. He is in the Hall of Fame.
“She won easy the day she won on the turf, and I thought that day, ‘I’ll never run her on the main track again,’ ” he said. “But I did.”
It was calculated risk. Alexis Tangier was entered in a first-level optional claimer on July 27, but that was one of the days grass racing was suspended and moved to Polytrack. Alexis Tangier faltered on the main track, finishing fifth going 1 1/16 miles.
She is back in her element on Wednesday, going a flat mile on turf at the same first-level allowance condition for 3-year-old fillies. And being a half-sister to Moulin de Mougin, the recent winner of the Grade 2 John C. Mabee Stakes, the hope is that Alexis Tangier will improve with racing and distance.
“I haven’t guessed much right yet with her,” Mandella said, taking his final self-deprecating shot of the morning, “so I’m just going to hope. But watching her train, I think she’ll appreciate it.”
Fourteen were entered in the race, but – with the turf rail set out 30 feet – a maximum of nine can run. Alexis Tangier drew post 3.
KEY CONTENDERS
Alexis Tangier (Last 3 Beyers: 68-81-38)
◗ She got the best Beyer Speed Figure of her career the one time she raced on turf, when defeating maidens on the hillside turf course at Santa Anita on June 21.
◗ Her dam, Cambiocorsa, was a terror on the downhill course, which is one of the reasons Mandella initially stayed with turf sprints for Moulin de Mougin. But Moulin de Mougin has done better with increased distance, and the stable hopes Alexis Tangier will follow suit.
Kukaluka (Last 3 Beyers: 70-78-79)
◗ She finished fourth in the same off-the-turf race in which Alexis Tangier finished fifth. She too should appreciate a return to the grass, having won a first-level optional claimer restricted to California-breds in her race before last June 27.
Disregarded (Last 3 Beyers: 42-82-78)
◗ She was last of eight in the July 27 allowance from which Alexis Tangier and Kukaluka also exit, but her prior turf form was quite good, including a fourth-place finish in the Grade 3 Senorita on June 28, so she should bounce back on grass.
◗ Her trainer, Kristin Mulhall, is having an excellent meeting. Just 6 for 69 on the year coming into Del Mar, Mulhall has won six of her 28 starts here.