California State Fair Sprint rivals chasing Dianne Do

Although she is making her stakes debut and running against stakes winners Ultra Blend, Broadway Hennessey, and Izzy Rules, Dianne Do has the speed to make her the one to beat Saturday in the $75,000 California State Fair Sprint Handicap at Sacramento.

Dianne Do has never been headed this year. She has won 3 of 4 this year, and in her only loss she broke through the rail in a one-mile optional claimer on the Golden Gate turf while on the lead. She won an optional-claiming sprint on the Golden Gate Tapeta one race after her mishap and then won an allowance at one mile on the turf there in her last start, which came June 12.

“We were looking at this race, and we’ve freshened her for it,” said Bud Klokstad, who trains Dianne Do, a 4-year-old Slewledo filly owned and bred by John Roche.

Dianne Do’s only races on dirt, the surface at Sacramento, were losses in Emerald Downs maiden races in her first two starts.

Dianne Do could face an early pace challenge from Izzy Rules, a 3-year-old who drew the outside post in the field of seven fillies and mares. But Klokstad said he doesn’t believe Dianne Do needs a perfect scenario to win.

“She rates kindly out there,” he said. “She’s completely relaxed whether she’s running a 25 or 22. In the morning, she’s the same.

“Somebody might really want the lead,” he said. “If she had to, she could lay second or third, and I don’t think that would affect her.”

Broadway Hennessey is coming off a wire-to-wire victory in a $50,000 optional claimer. Before that, she couldn’t keep up with Dianne Do in an optional-claiming sprint and finished second, beaten five lengths.

Izzy Rules gets in at 112 pounds, six fewer than Dianne Do and seven fewer than highweight Ultra Blend. She may not have faced a runner with Dianne Do’s early foot and ability to keep her speed.

Ultra Blend makes her second start of the year after a solid comeback try at Hollywood Park on June 23. In her first start after a 10-month break, she finished third, beaten a half-length, in an optional-claiming sprint on turf. She has never failed to pick up a check in her seven stakes tries, hitting the board six times, including a second in the Grade 3 Santa Paula at Santa Anita last year.

− Chuck Dybdal

Arapaho: Wally Van favored off trial

Wally Van looks like a standout on paper in the $37,380 Colorado Thoroughbred Breeders Association Futurity at Arapahoe Park on Saturday after he romped in the trials. He also brings a winning pedigree into the race, which is run at six furlongs and is restricted to 2-year-olds bred in Colorado.

Wally Van is a son of the multiple Grade 3-winning millionaire Crafty Shaw and a half-brother to Rasmussen, who won the 2007 running of the CTBA Futurity by eight lengths. Wally Van won his trial by a similar margin, tracking and pouncing his way home by 8 1/2 lengths July 2. It was the second win in two career starts for Wally Van, and he earned a career-best Beyer Figure of 62. The number is also at least 21 points higher than each of the last-race Beyers of his 10 rivals Saturday.

Trained by Tyrone Gleason, Wally Van will break from post 9 under Wilson Dieguez.

Class Favorite, who was second to Wally Van in the CTBA trial race, breaks from post 10. The field also includes Northern Twist, who won his trial one start after finishing second by a neck to Wally Van in a maiden special weight for statebreds at Arapahoe.

Saturday’s card also includes two stakes for Quarter Horses, with Spit Curl Diva leading the $25,560 West/Southwest Distaff Challenge. There is also the $42,120 West/Southwest Derby.

− Mary Rampellini