Del Mar: Coil tunes up for Pat O’Brien
Coil, who returned from a lengthy layoff to win a money allowance July 26, stayed on edge for the Grade 2, $250,000 Pat O’Brien Stakes on Sunday with an easy half-mile work in 48.80 seconds Tuesday morning under Rafael Bejarano.
Bob Baffert, who trains Coil, said his long-range goal this year is the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile.
Baffert also will run Capital Account in the seven-furlong Pat O’Brien. Capital Account also worked half-mile under Bejarano, in 50.40 seconds.
Bejarano will ride Coil in the race. David Flores rides Capital Account.
The field is expected to include Mobilized and Camp Victory, winner of the Grade 1 Triple Bend Handicap at Hollywood Park on June 30 for trainer Mike Mitchell.
“That horse of Mitchell’s is a good horse,” Baffert said. “He brings it every time.”
Good spot for Missdealornodeal
Like many trainers at Del Mar, Neil French has to judiciously choose his spots, and he may have found an ideal one in Thursday’s fourth race for the mare Missdealornodeal, who ran a super race for French on Aug. 10 in the Daisycutter Handicap, finishing second in her first start since being claimed for $32,000.
Missdealornodeal returns in a similar five-furlong turf sprint Thursday, an optional claimer for which she is using her second-level allowance condition.
“She’s a pro, all racehorse,” French, who has 10 horses at Del Mar, said Tuesday morning. “She’s just a professional racehorse.”
Missdealornodeal, 6, has overcome a fairly serious injury, which has limited her to 17 starts, though nine of them came this year. She has won seven times overall.
“She has a huge, humongous bowed tendon, but she trains real sound on it and she runs well,” French said.
Missdealornodeal also frequently breaks poorly.
“She’s smart,” French said. “When you school her in the morning, she stands there just fine. But she knows when it’s race time. She gets a little fidgety in the gate, gets to moving around, and it doesn’t help that she’s so big. She looks like a Quarter Horse.”