Calculator makes turf debut

DEL MAR, Calif. – Calculator won a graded stakes on dirt in early 2015 as a 3-year-old and has two seconds and a third in graded sprints this year. On Saturday, Calculator’s career will go in a different direction when he starts for the first time on turf.

There are indications that Calculator will run well in a strong field in Saturday’s fifth race, a one-mile optional claimer. He worked a half-mile in 51.60 seconds on turf last Sunday.

“I’m expecting a top effort,” trainer Peter Miller said on Thursday. “The hope is we can use this race as a springboard for the Del Mar Mile.”

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The $200,000 Del Mar Mile on turf will be run Aug. 21.

Owned by Richard Pell, Calculator was last of 10 in the $1.25 million Met Mile at Belmont Park on June 11. The colt emerged from the race with foot problems, Miller said.

Calculator was second in both the Grade 1 Carter Handicap at Aqueduct on April 9 and the Grade 2 Churchill Downs Stakes on the Kentucky Derby undercard May 7.

Saturday’s optional claimer drew a field of 11. Other prominent runners are Metaboss, who won the Grade 3 El Camino Real Derby at Golden Gate Fields in 2015 and recently joined trainer Phil D’Amato’s stable, and Skelton Pass, the winner of an optional claimer at a mile on turf at Santa Anita on June 4.