D'Amato legging up Behind Enemy Lines in turf sprint

ARCADIA, Calif. – Behind Enemy Lines is behind the eight ball Friday at Santa Anita.

A route specialist in a turf sprint, facing older for the first time, making his first start in nine months and first in California, Behind Enemy Lines is only prepping in a second-level allowance/optional-claiming race at six furlongs on turf. It is not a must-win.

“He’s trained very well, but we’re going to use this race to set him up for bigger races at Del Mar,” trainer Phil D’Amato said. “We’ll probably stretch him out after this race.”

That does not preclude Behind Enemy Lines from winning race 7 on Friday. After all, he is the field’s only stakes winner. But rivals, including Zoffarelli, have attributes such as current condition and proven affinity for Santa Anita turf.

Zoffarelli has won two of his last three sprints at Friday’s class level and is entered for the $80,000 optional tag. Lovesick Blues finished second in three straight turf sprints. Daniel’s Magic drops from a series of stakes.

It is a solid field and the last chance until fall for second-level allowance sprinters to race six furlongs on turf. Del Mar turf sprints are only five furlongs. That distance is too short for many running Friday. The field also includes Mas Rapido, Catalina Eddy, Agency, and Player B.

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From a gambling perspective, the Friday feature is mostly straightforward. What you see is what you get. In Zoffarelli, bettors get an honest front-runner with two recent wins at the level and a potential pace advantage. The Jeff Mullins-trained gelding set the pace in his last three turf sprints, winning two in gate-to-wire fashion under regular rider Hector Berrios.

But a challenge facing Zoffarelli is a curious profile following his Jan. 1 win. Since then, none of the 17 turf sprints at Friday’s rails-at-20-feet configuration have been won by a pacesetter. It goes against convention. Speed usually is an asset, not a liability. Zoffarelli at least enters in sharp form.

Behind Enemy Lines has not raced since a fifth-place finish Sept. 9 at Kentucky Downs in the Grade 2 Franklin-Simpson Stakes for 3-year-olds, a turf sprint that produced five next-out winners. Behind Enemy Lines, who won the Cutler Bay Stakes in his April 2023 U.S. debut at Gulfstream Park, posted his first work for D’Amato this April.

“I’ve been getting to know him off the layoff,” the trainer said. “He’s shown in his form he’s run some creditable races short, but better races going two turns.”

The colt’s recent works have been solo.

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“If I breezed him in company, he’d be bullet-working every breeze,” D’Amato explained. He compared Behind Enemy Lines’s works to a Grade 1 winner. “I did the same thing with Obviously, a little bit of similarity in the way he trains.”

Antonio Fresu rides Behind Enemy Lines, a 2-for-7 English-bred. Both wins were his first start following layoffs. If he runs well Friday, the $100,000 Wickerr Stakes, a restricted turf mile July 21 at Del Mar, would be perfect for Behind Enemy Lines.

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