Different paths to BC Sprint for Ransom the Moon, Drefong

DEL MAR, Calif. – Both Ransom the Moon and Drefong came out of an eventful Bing Crosby Stakes on Saturday in good order, their trainers said Sunday morning at Del Mar, but they likely will take a different path toward a potential rematch in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint here on Nov. 4.

Ransom the Moon won the Grade 1 Crosby and with it earned a fees-paid berth in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint via the Win and You’re In program. Trainer Phil D’Amato said Ransom the Moon would make his next start Oct. 7 in the Grade 1, $300,000 Santa Anita Sprint Championship, a race, like the Crosby and the Breeders’ Cup Sprint, that is six furlongs.

“Between six and seven furlongs is his wheelhouse,” D’Amato said.

D’Amato said Ransom the Moon “got lucky at the top of the lane” that he had a clear path when Drefong drifted out, bothering Roy H and Moe Candy.

Drefong – who was making his first start since winning last year’s Breeders’ Cup Sprint and the Eclipse Award for top male sprinter – lost jockey Mike Smith soon after the start when he veered sharply left toward the temporary rail at the point where the clubhouse turn joins the backstretch.

“Everybody came back fine. There’s a million reasons to get beat. That’s one of them,” Bob Baffert, Drefong’s trainer, said Sunday morning. “It could have been worse. All’s good.”

Baffert said Drefong would be strongly considered for the Grade 1, $600,000 Forego on Aug. 26 at Saratoga. Drefong won the King’s Bishop there last year, a race, like the Forego, at seven furlongs.

Baffert is planning on having West Coast in the Grade 1, $1.25 million Travers, and American Anthem in the Grade 1, $500,000 Allen Jerkens Memorial – formerly known as the King’s Bishop – also on Aug. 26 at Saratoga.

The incident with Drefong has prompted Del Mar officials to look into ways to prevent horses from trying to make that gap. Baffert said Del Mar needs “something with more substance and that goes farther out.”

“What they have is pretty flimsy,” Baffert said.

Tom Robbins, Del Mar’s executive vice president of racing, said Sunday morning that he had the laborers at the track “looking into it.”

“It’s been that way for a long time, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be improved,” Robbins said.