Calculator takes shot in Futurity

DEL MAR, Calif. – Selecting a race for Calculator for the final days of the Del Mar meeting was easy for trainer Peter Miller.

Even though the colt is a maiden after two starts, Miller and owner Richard Pell are willing to try Calculator in Wednesday’s $300,000 Del Mar Futurity over seven furlongs. Wednesday is the closing day of the Del Mar summer meeting.

Finding a race for Red Outlaw, the winner of Friday’s $100,000 El Cajon Stakes, might be tougher.

On Saturday, Miller said Red Outlaw could appear in a variety of races on turf or dirt, and the $100,000 California Flag Handicap for California-breds on the hillside turf course Oct. 18 at Santa Anita has appeal.

“I’d like to keep him with straight 3-year-olds or Cal-breds,” he said.

Red Outlaw, who races for a partnership, is unbeaten in five starts, including three consecutive stakes. By Tribal Rule, Red Outlaw has yet to run on dirt. In the El Cajon Stakes for 3-year-olds, Red Outlaw led throughout, winning the one-mile race by 3 3/4 lengths.

Earlier this year, Red Outlaw won the Baffle Stakes on the hillside turf course at Santa Anita and the Real Good Deal Stakes for 3-year-old California-bred sprinters at this meeting.

“He can do a bit of everything,” Miller said. “Eventually, I’d like to run him long on the grass.”

Calculator was third in his debut July 19 and fourth against maidens Aug. 9. On Thursday, Calculator worked five furlongs in 58.40 seconds, the fastest of 36 recorded works at the distance.

“He worked super the other day,” Miller said. “I didn’t get him quite that quick.”

The Del Mar Futurity field is led by Skyway, the winner of the Grade 2 Best Pal Stakes over 6 1/2 furlongs Aug. 3. Other expected runners are Henry’s Holiday, second in the Best Pal; the maiden-race winners Holiday Camp, Inexcess Time, Lord Nelson, and Red Button; and the maiden Iron Fist.

Bench Warrant, the winner of a maiden race July 19, will miss the race because of an ankle injury, trainer John Sadler said Saturday.

“He wrenched an ankle,” Sadler said. “The diagnosis was okay. We’ll know more in a couple of days.”