Del Mar: Sean S goes for five in a row in Thursday optional claimer

DEL MAR, Calif. – There’s not much about Sean S that would tout her in the morning, according to her trainer, Joshua Litt, but when she gets on the track in the afternoon, it’s a different story. After wallowing in mid-level restricted claiming races for much of her career, Sean S has blossomed in recent months, concurrent with her moving to Litt’s barn and a switch to the turf.

She has won four straight races, three on turf, and goes for a high five Thursday in the featured seventh race at Del Mar.

The seventh race, at five furlongs on turf for older fillies and mares, is an optional claimer for second-level allowance horses or those entered for a claiming price of $62,500.

“She trains okay, but she just runs really hard,” Litt said Tuesday morning. “She’s a small, little filly. She’s been lucky with some of the fields she’s drawn in, small fields, winning by small margins. But mostly grass has been the biggest thing.”

In her last start, Sean S prevailed by a nose at Betfair Hollywood Park on June 10 in a first-level allowance race, her first start in four months. Litt is dangling her for $62,500 on Thursday.

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“I never really expected her to handle open company,” Litt said. “You can’t ask for a better spot than she’s in on Thursday. Usually you catch a really salty field.”

Not this time. Only four others are entered, two of whom, like Sean S, are eligible to be claimed. Both of those fillies are trained by Barry Abrams, including Magic School, who was a winner over this course last year. Magic School was a distant fifth to Sean S at Hollywood Park on June 10.

Abrams’s other runner is Lindz Winz, back in familiar surroundings after three poor tries in New York.

The main rival to Sean S figures to be Sizzling Gold, who was a close third in the June 10 allowance and then returned to beat a similar first-level allowance field at Hollywood Park on July 10. Like Sean S, she loves to win, with 10 victories in 28 starts, including 4 of her last 6.

Big Honey Bee, claimed for $20,000 at Golden Gate on May 24, makes her turf debut after finishing second in a first-level allowance on the main track at Hollywood Park last time out. She is racing above her conditions, though she ran well against the razor-sharp Moonstruck Maya in that last race.