Big fig maiden winner Ball Don't Lie leads four-horse Barrera

ARCADIA, Calif. – Only four starters in a weekend stakes race at Santa Anita is not as bad as it looks. It is worse.

High-figure maiden winner Ball Don’t Lie and stakes-placed Tapalo run Sunday in the $100,000 Lazaro Barrera Stakes, a sprint for 3-year-olds that is barely hanging on. The 2023 race had four runners; the 2022 edition was canceled due to insufficient entries; the 2021 Barrera had four runners.

Regrettably, the local 3-year-old sprint division will soon take another hit. Barrera favorites Ball Don’t Lie and Tapalo are New York-breds likely to ship following the seven-furlong Barrera. Ball Don’t Lie will enter the Barrera following a 97 Beyer Speed Figure maiden win, and then exit.

“He’ll probably leave town after this race,” trainer Mark Glatt said. “He will probably head to New York because there’s a lot of good stuff for him there. There’s a New York-bred stakes for him coming up.”

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The $125,000 Mike Lee for statebred 3-year-old dirt sprinters is June 9 at Saratoga.

“I don’t know how many [3-year-old New York-breds] have run a 97 Beyer,” Glatt said. “I’m assuming he’ll stack up real well against whatever they may have back there. Hopefully he would run well on the grass, too. I think he’s got plenty ahead of him.”

Tapalo, same thing. Runner-up in the El Camino Real Derby two back at Golden Gate Fields, fifth last out in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby, Tapalo was supplemented to the Barrera while eyeing New York.

“He’s got a New York-bred stake in June,” trainer John Sadler said. The Barrera “might be a spot to give him a try, and then go back out [on the road].”

The struggles of the California circuit are further illustrated Sunday in race 1. Moonlit Sonata and Final Boss are top contenders in the 3-year-old turf allowance, which was not their first objective. Both were nominated to the $100,000 Singletary Stakes on April 28 at Santa Anita. That stakes was canceled when only three entered.

The Barrera is race 4 Sunday on a card with 57 entrants in nine races, though the card does include two intriguing maiden races. Juveniles go 4 1/2 furlongs in race 2; contenders are firsters Timty, Soi Ngern, and Ivan the Great. Race 6 is a California-bred sprint for maiden fillies and mares featuring Moonlight Tryst, a 4-year-old firster by American Pharoah. She faces maiden-placed 3-year-olds Raising Silver and Epione.

The Barrera could have been the spot for Vlahos, an impressive Santa Anita debut winner who had already shipped. He ran super in the fast-pace Grade 2, $600,000 Pat Day Mile on May 4 at Churchill Downs. Vlahos earned $56,500 finishing third. The Barrera winner will earn $60,000.

In addition to Ball Don’t Lie and Tapalo, the Barrera includes Tessuto and Heart Headed. Tessuto finished last in the Santa Anita Derby; Heart Headed, the second Sadler entrant, is returning to dirt. His two wins were on dirt. He misfired last out as the favorite in a turf sprint stakes.

Ball Don’t Lie and jockey Antonio Fresu drew the outside post in the Barrera and should be heavily favored in a historically predictable race. Six of the last eight winners were favorites, five at even money or less.

Tapalo broke slowly, rushed, and faded in the Santa Anita Derby, but Sadler was encouraged by his subsequent five-furlong workout on May 4.

“He looked really good, and bright. He broke his maiden at seven-eighths,” Sadler said. “He’s a pretty talented horse.”

Hector Berrios rides.

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