D'Amato has five candidates for Shoemaker Mile
ARCADIA, Calif. – Top Santa Anita trainer Phil D’Amato could have as many as five runners in the Grade 1 Shoemaker Mile on turf at Santa Anita next Monday, Memorial Day.
D’Amato, who leads all trainers at the winter-spring meeting in wins and stakes wins, said on Sunday that the four-time stakes winner Count Again, the 2021 graded stakes winner Masteroffoxhounds, and the recent British import Hong Kong Harry will run and could be joined by Gold Phoenix and Dance Some Mo.
Asked if they all could start, D’Amato said, “Absolutely.”
Count Again won the Grade 1 Frank Kilroe Mile on turf on March 5. The Kilroe and Shoemaker have purses of $500,000 and are the richest turf races of the year at Santa Anita. Count Again was sixth by 1 3/4 lengths in the Grade 1 Maker’s Mark Mile on turf at Keeneland on April 15.
Smooth Like Strait, third in the Maker’s Mark Mile, is another top candidate for the Shoemaker Mile, a race he won last year. Smooth Like Strait, who is trained by Michael McCarthy, was second in the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Del Mar last November.
Masteroffoxhounds was transferred to D’Amato from Richard Baltas earlier this month. Baltas was banned by Santa Anita track management from entering or working horses for an alleged medication violation on the weekend of May 7-8, and some of his horses are being trained by other trainers.
Masteroffoxhounds was second in the Grade 2 Charles Whittingham Stakes at 1 1/4 miles on turf on April 30 and won the Grade 2 San Marcos Stakes at that distance in February 2021.
Hong Kong Harry, a four-time winner in the United Kingdom in 2020 and 2021, won allowance races at 1 1/8 miles on turf on March 6 and on April 16 in his first two starts in the United States.
“I like to give horses a chance in stakes off of winning streaks,” D’Amato said. “He’s going in the right direction.”
The Shoemaker Mile field will include Restrainedvengence, who was third in the 2021 Shoemaker Mile and third in the BC Dirt Mile at Del Mar in November. Trained by Val Brinkerhoff, Restrainedvengence finished fifth in the John Shear Mile on dirt at Santa Anita on April 10 in his first start of 2022, and eighth, beaten 3 1/2 lengths, in the Grade 3 San Francisco Mile on turf at Golden Gate Fields on April 30.
Restrainedvengence was 12th of 14 in the San Francisco Mile with a quarter-mile remaining. A 7-year-old gelding, Restrainedvengence will be fitted with blinkers for the first time since July 2018 in the Shoemaker.
“I’ll try blinkers on him and see if he’ll be closer,” Brinkerhoff said.
The Shoemaker field will not include Evening Sun, the winner of the San Francisco Mile, who may run at the Del Mar summer meeting, trainer Jeff Mullins said.