D'Amato has them surrounded in Seabiscuit Handicap

DEL MAR, Calif. – With Pee Wee Reese on the lead and Hunt coming from off the pace, trainer Phil D’Amato will have a potent one-two punch Sunday in the Grade 2, $200,000 Seabiscuit Handicap, the first of three stakes on the closing-day card.

Pee Wee Reese appears to be the controlling speed in the 1 1/16-mile turf race for older runners, while Hunt is returning to a middle distance, and friendlier competition, after finding the 1 1/2-mile Breeders’ Cup Turf a mountain too high to climb. Both got the green light after encouraging workouts on the turf here last Sunday.

Pee Wee Reese has not raced since July 4, when he ran the strongest race of his career when scoring a front-running victory in the Grade 3 American at Santa Anita. That was his third win in four starts this year, and his fifth win in his last six starts dating to August 2016, but he was given a brief freshening at the farm of his owner and breeder, Nick Alexander, before embarking on a late fall and winter campaign that starts Sunday.

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“He needed a freshening. He ran so huge,” D’Amato said Friday morning. “He should come back good. I really liked his last breeze on the grass here. He’ll go to the lead, and we’ll see what happens.”

Hunt picked up where Pee Wee Reese left off. He made his first start of the year in the American, finishing fifth, then won twice during the summer meet here in the Eddie Read and Del Mar Handicap – both Grade 2 races – before finishing seventh of eight in the John Henry Turf Championship and last of 13 in the Breeders’ Cup Turf.

He was on the fence for this race until last Sunday, when he worked well and galloped out with enthusiasm under his regular rider, Flavien Prat.

“Flavien sat on him to the quarter pole, asked him, and he took off,” D’Amato said. “Flavien really liked his work. It’s hard to get Flavien excited, so when he tells you he liked the way he went, it means something.”

There were nine entered in the Seabiscuit, but the field will be shorter, as both Flamboyant and Tequila Joe were expected to run Friday in the Hollywood Turf Cup and thus would be scratched.

In addition to D’Amato, trainers Dan Hendricks and George Papaprodromou each entered two horses in the race.

Hendricks has Om and Irish Surf. Om is his best chance. He was eighth of 14 in the Breeders’ Cup Mile on Nov. 4, but was second to Pee Wee Reese in the American on July 4 when making his first start since last year’s Seabiscuit, in which he finished third.

Papaprodromou has Mr. Roary and Win the Space. Mr. Roary looks like his best chance. He was third to Hunt in the Eddie Read this summer and switches to jockey Javier Castellano.

He Will, who won the minor Lure here Nov. 2, rounds out the field.