Baffert will start three in five-horse Bob Hope Stakes
DEL MAR, Calif. – Recent maiden winners Kamui, Messier, and Winning Map present a three-headed monster that trainer Bob Baffert will send out Sunday at Del Mar in the Grade 3, $100,000 Bob Hope Stakes, a seven-furlong race for 2-year-olds that Baffert said will determine which of those runners goes on to next month’s Grade 2 Los Alamitos Futurity.
“They’re all running,” Baffert said Friday morning. “They’re all pointing to the Los Alamitos Futurity, and I didn’t want to sit on them until then.”
The Los Alamitos Futurity, at 1 1/16 miles, is being run this year on Dec. 18, later than usual. It affords horses who ran in the Breeders’ Cup more time to run back if desired. But it also has served as a showcase for later-developing 2-year-olds, and Baffert’s trio – 60 percent of the Bob Hope field – fit that description.
Kamui, by Quality Road – the same sire as Baffert’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner, Corniche – lost his debut Aug. 21 at Del Mar, but returned Sept. 11 at Los Alamitos and crushed maidens by six lengths, earning a Beyer Speed Figure of 82 going 5 1/2 furlongs.
“I think he’s a really good horse,” Baffert said.
Messier, who drew the rail, also was a winner in his second start, also earning a Beyer figure of 82, when defeating maidens going six furlongs on Oct. 22 at Santa Anita. Messier, by Empire Maker, wore blinkers in his first two races, but they are being removed for the Bob Hope.
“I want to see how he reacts,” Baffert said. “He’s not as quick as the other two.”
The quickest of his trio might be Winning Map, who sped to a front-running score going six furlongs in his lone start Oct. 3 at Santa Anita, earning an 85 Beyer that is best of this field.
“You can’t take too much of a hold of him. He’s fast, like his sire,” Baffert said of the son of Liam’s Map.
There are two others in the race.
Forbidden Kingdom beat Kamui at Del Mar when both debuted during this summer. His trainer, Richard Mandella, was reluctant to stretch out Forbidden Kingdom off that one win, so instead of going in the American Pharoah the first weekend at Santa Anita’s fall meeting, he sprinted, but on turf. He finished third as the favorite.
“He hit himself a little bit, had a little injury, minor,” Mandella said at his Del Mar barn Friday morning. “He’s been training really nice.”
Forbidden Kingdom was headstrong when training during the summer. Mandella said he’s become more cooperative.
“I’ve trained him to be better,” he said, laughing.
Rock N Rye, an accomplished California-bred, rounds out the field while making his first start in open company. He won the Graduation Stakes here during the summer, then was second in the I’m Smokin at Del Mar and the Royal Owl at Los Alamitos. He prefers to stalk and pounce, and should get plenty of pace to attack.
The Bob Hope is race 8 on a nine-race card that begins at 12:30 p.m. Pacific.