The comebacking Mo Forza jumps right into the fire in Del Mar Mile

There is no shortage of confidence among the leading participants in Saturday’s Grade 2 Del Mar Mile.

The $300,000 turf race marks the 2021 debut of five-time stakes winner Mo Forza, who will be opposed by current year Grade 1 winners Hit the Road and Smooth Like Strait in an important prep for the Breeders’ Cup Mile here on Nov. 6.

Mo Forza was an intended starter in the 2020 BC Mile at Keeneland until he was sidelined in the weeks leading to the race with a soft-tissue injury. Mo Forza won the 2020 Del Mar Mile and the Grade 2 City of Hope Mile at Santa Anita in his final two starts last year.

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The Del Mar Mile will provide an immediate test of where Mo Forza fits among the California turf milers.

“It’s all systems go,” trainer Peter Miller said. “Mo Forza is the most talented horse in the race, if he’s the same horse.

“He’s just a good horse and he’s a horse that’s on the fragile side. He’s really good now.”

Owned by Bardy Farm and OG Boss, Mo Forza will be ridden by leading jockey Flavien Prat. Miller said he has been encouraged by Mo Forza’s recent workouts at nearby San Luis Rey Downs training center, including five furlongs in 1:00.80 from the gate on Aug. 14.

“He’s about 90 percent,” Miller said. “If he’s 90 percent and he runs his race, that should be good enough.”

Hit the Road won the Grade 1 Frank Kilroe Mile at Santa Anita in March, but has not started since a fifth-place finish as the 5-2 favorite in the Grade 1 Maker’s Mark Mile at Keeneland in April. Trained by Dan Blacker, Hit the Road emerged from the race with a strained muscle.

Hit the Road has performed brilliantly after layoffs, notably a win in the Grade 3 Thunder Road Stakes at Santa Anita in February in his first start in nearly seven months. Blacker is banking on that same situation helping Hit the Road on Saturday.

“He’s ready to go,” Blacker said. “All the signs point that he will run a big race.

“He ran his best numbers off a seven-month layoff. He runs well fresh.”

Blacker has a high level of respect for Mo Forza, even without a recent start.

“I think that is the toughest horse to run against,” Blacker said. “It will be interesting to see how the race pans out.”

Smooth Like Strait, trained by Michael McCarthy, holds a fees-paid berth to the BC Mile for his win in the Grade 1 Shoemaker Mile on May 31 at Santa Anita.

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Smooth Like Strait has the benefit of a race over the Del Mar turf course this summer, a game second in the Grade 2 Eddie Read Stakes at 1 1/8 miles on turf on July 24. Sent off as the even-money favorite, Smooth Like Strait, who tends to run near the front, stalked a slow pace, led in the stretch, and was beaten a neck by the multiple stakes winner United.

A winner of 7 of 16 starts, Smooth Like Strait has been beaten a neck in three stakes this year – a second in the Kilroe Mile, third in the Grade 1 Old Forester Turf Classic at Churchill Downs in May, and in the Eddie Read.

“I haven’t seen a horse put together a campaign as consistent as his this year,” McCarthy said.

McCarthy thinks Smooth Like Strait will be the colt to catch and beat in the Del Mar Mile.

“I’m not worried about Mo Forza or Hit the Road,” he said.

The stakes winners Count Again, Neptune’s Storm, and Next Shares are the other three starters.

Neptune’s Storm won the restricted Wickerr Stakes at a mile on turf here July 18 for Miller in his second start of the year.

“I thought he ran a big race in the Wickerr,” Miller said.

Count Again, who won the Grade 2 Seabiscuit Handicap here last November, closed with interest for third in the Read.

Next Shares is 8, the senior member of the field, and stuck in a 19-race losing streak, since he won the Grade 2 San Gabriel Stakes at Santa Anita in January 2019. This will be the 32nd stakes appearance and 42nd start for Next Shares.

Next Shares was seventh by 2 3/4 lengths in the Wickerr. He raced in traffic in the final furlong and was beaten a length for second.