Baltas pursues another Del Mar training title

Trainer Richard Baltas had a busy opening week last summer at Del Mar, where he won with 2 of 15 runners. He finished the seven-week season with 18 wins, tied for the trainer’s title with Phil D’Amato.

Baltas may be equally active in the first five days of the Del Mar summer meeting that begins Wednesday – and could have a stakes win in that span.

Baltas will run Desert Stone on Wednesday in the $100,000 Oceanside Stakes for 3-year-olds on turf. Desert Stone won consecutive races at Santa Anita in May and June and will have his California stakes debut in the Oceanside.

The stable may have as many as three runners in Saturday’s Grade 2 San Clemente Stakes – Ms Bad Behavior, Flammetta, and Navajo Dreamer. The $200,000 San Clemente is run at a mile on turf for 3-year-old fillies.

Ms Bad Behavior won the China Doll Stakes at Santa Anita in March and was second in the Grade 3 Providencia Stakes in April.

“She’s probably the best of the three,” Baltas said.

The stable will be active at many levels, but is missing one promising runner in the 3-year-old Fibonacci, who has been turned out at a local farm because of a soft-tissue injury, Baltas said. Fibonacci won consecutive starts on turf earlier this year.

“He’ll be out for four months,” he said.

Baltas finished in a tie for fourth at the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting with 16 wins, far behind leader Doug O’Neill, who won 31 races. O’Neill, D’Amato, and Peter Miller will challenge Baltas for the training title at Del Mar in coming weeks.

“I don’t think I have the horses that some of the other guys have,” he said. “But being at Del Mar is pretty much the ultimate. It’s a good time.”