El Tigre Terrible faces upset-minded Lightning Fast in Real Good Deal Stakes

DEL MAR, Calif – Bad trips come in many forms, including self-caused traffic trouble, pre-arranged ground loss, and track bias.

All are in play Friday at Del Mar, where bad boy El Tigre Terrible runs in the $125,000 Real Good Deal Stakes for California-bred 3-year-olds.

His task in the seven-furlong sprint is to take a cue from stakes-winning stablemate Laura’s Light and, for once, avoid trouble.

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El Tigre Terrible “tends to make his own bad luck,” trainer Peter Miller said. “He wants to run up on [heels]. He and Laura’s Light are total opposites. One puts herself in the race and is always in the right spot. The other seems to always be in trouble. It’s frustrating.”

A bad trip cost El Tigre Terrible a stakes victory two back when he was blocked until deep stretch in a turf sprint and finished second. Last out, another nightmare. Second choice in the Oceanside Stakes, he was blocked from the quarter pole to the wire. El Tigre Terrible never had a chance to run. He finished 11th.

All is forgiven if El Tigre Terrible wins the Real Good Deal as the 2-1 favorite by linemaker John Lies, although Lightning Fast, whose wide trip last out was by design, is poised to upset second start back. The others in the field are graded winner Phantom Boss, stakes-placed Margot’s Boy and Rookie Mistake, and maiden winners Let’s Rejoyce and Clayton Delaney.

Seven entered the Real Good Deal, race 9, which would have been deeper if speedball Brickyard Ride, currently the fastest Cal-bred 3-year-old, entered the stakes instead of a six-furlong allowance, race 7. Craig Lewis trains Brickyard Ride, whose blazing speed carried him to successive allowance wins. So why isn’t he in the Real Good Deal?

“Seven-eighths,” Lewis said. “If this was a normal racetrack, I’d have gone in the Real Good Deal. But they just stagger on this thing. They can’t stay.”

Lewis is not blowing smoke. The main track at Del Mar produces slow times, and front-runners such as Brickyard Ride have been stymied by a track profile against speed. From six furlongs to seven, only one of the first 18 races was won by the pacesetter.

Lewis’s worry that Brickyard Ride would be compromised at seven furlongs is a worry in the six-furlong allowance, also. Brickyard Ride may or may not carry his speed at the shorter distance.

“That’s my concern,” Lewis said. “He’s a Quarter Horse. He’s got Quarter Horse speed, for sure. And this is not a soft spot.”

One could argue the allowance is stronger than the stakes. In addition to 5-2 favorite Brickyard Ride, the field includes well-regarded Cali Dude, a lightly raced gelding trained by John Sadler making his first start since November. Brickyard Ride and Cali Dude are by Clubhouse Ride, as is Lewis-trained Real Good Deal entrant Margot’s Boy.

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The challenge facing Margot’s Boy is footing. The 3-for-6 gelding has never run short, and never on dirt.

“I know this horse can go seven-eighths,” Lewis said. “I do not know if he can run on dirt. There’s no doubt in my mind he’s as good as those horses, it’s just a question of what he’s going to do when dirt hits him in the face.”

Margot’s Boy produces speed in routes, but the likely Real Good Deal pacesetter is Phantom Boss, winner of the Grade 3 Bashford Manor last spring at Churchill Downs and rounding back into form. Phantom Boss faces a challenging anti-speed track profile, however, while Margot’s Boy must cope with unfamiliar footing and distance.

Ultimately, the Real Good Deal comes down to El Tigre Terrible and upset candidate Lightning Fast.

El Tigre Terrible has won 3 of 7, including a turf sprint stakes last fall, and he is proven on the Del Mar main track, where he won 2 of 3 last summer. With a clean trip, he can win the Real Good Deal as the favorite.

However, the seven-furlong sprint offers an attractive wagering proposition in the form of Lightning Fast, a Bill Spawr trainee listed at 8-1 on the morning line.

Lightning Fast’s three starts last year were ordinary, two thirds and a ninth, all at low odds. Spawr was puzzled, because Lightning Fast worked better in the morning than he ran in the afternoon.

“We thought he was a better horse than he was showing,” Spawr said. “He was like a little kid. He wasn’t serious at all. He wasn’t focused.”

Having been thwarted long and short, dirt and turf, with and without blinkers, Spawr and the colt’s owners finally opted for the ultimate equipment change and gelded Lightning Fast prior to his Jan. 30 maiden-race comeback at Santa Anita.

Lightning Fast finally ran like he trained, and won by six lengths. Then racing shut down and Lightning Fast went into a holding pattern. As the Del Mar season approached, Spawr set sights on the Real Good Deal.

To get there, he used an allowance race on opening day. It was only a prep. Lightning Fast lost ground racing wide and raced evenly late. He finished last, but came of the comeback prep in good order and worked an easy half-mile on Saturday.

“We had him the last eighth in 11 and 1,” Spawr said.

Lightning Fast drew the outside post Friday under Agapito Delgadillo, and is poised to upset second start back.