Established just might be able to upset Native Diver Stakes
An autumn stakes race on life support has been resuscitated by an eclectic mix of older horses seeking similar salvation Saturday at Del Mar.
Interest recently has waned in the Grade 3 Native Diver Stakes. The past three years, the 1 1/8-mile dirt race drew fields of three, four, and four. But the Native Diver is not dead yet. The $100,000 race attracted a relatively large field of eight older males on Saturday, many facing questions regarding distance, class, or form.
Established is a sprinter. Can he stretch his speed nine furlongs?
“I don’t know,” trainer Richard Baltas said, acknowledging the more highly accomplished competition. “We’re taking a shot. There are horses in there that can run, but they have questionable form.”
Bal Harbour is based in New York and has not won a race in three years. Why ship for the Native Diver?
“With the heavy-heads running over Breeders’ Cup weekend, we thought it would come up light,” trainer Gregg Sacco said. “We thought it would be in his ballpark.”
Bal Harbour, multiple graded-placed, is rounding back into form at age 6.
Kiss Today Goodbye, a Grade 2 winner, was supplemented to the Native Diver for his first start since July, when he bled and finished last in a Grade 2 at Del Mar. Trainer Eric Kruljac believes Kiss Today Goodbye is ready.
“He’s training great, and if he can lay a stalking trip and not be wide around the first turn and run his best race, I think he fits,” Kruljac said.
He fits, same as most in the field. Bob Baffert entered three, including Eight Rings, fourth in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile two weeks ago. Baffert-trained Ax Man would set the pace if he starts, while enigmatic Azul Coast would rally from behind.
Midcourt, a Grade 1-placed, Grade 2-winning gelding who won the 2019 Native Diver, has not returned to consistent form in 2021. Wicked Trick might prefer shorter than nine furlongs, but enters off a second-place finish in a highly rated allowance mile. Top to bottom, the Native Diver is wide open. For both horsemen and bettors, it is a good spot to take a shot.
Few shots are more ambitious than a sprinter stretching out. Whether he stays the trip or not, Baltas-trained Established has never been better. Purchased for $100,000 in April at a horses of racing age sale, he is exiting two recent allowance sprint wins looking for more.
Victor Espinoza has a return call on Established, who breaks from the rail.
“He’s just training really, really good right now,” Baltas said. “He won going a mile, and if somebody wants the lead, we could switch to the outside, depending on what Victor wants to do.”
The Del Mar main track is usually kind to speed at 1 1/8 miles. All seven winners of the Native Diver since the race moved from Hollywood Park were positioned first or second. Established has the right style. If he upsets, Baltas would have a second older horse for winter stakes. BC Dirt Mile runner-up Ginobili will breeze this weekend and is under consideration for the Grade 1 Cigar Mile on Dec. 4 at Aqueduct.
Bal Harbour, meanwhile, shipped west this week and will be the first Del Mar starter for his trainer. Sacco, who in the 1980s walked hots in California for late trainer Dale Landers before opening a stable in the East, sees the Native Diver as the right spot for Bal Harbour, who finished third in four straight Grade 3 stakes last year.
“It looks like he’s circling back to the form he had last year,” Sacco said. “He’s a hard-trying horse, a little bit snake-bitten, and he kinds of beats himself. When he makes the lead, he tries to pull himself up.”
Bal Harbour finished third last out in a stakes race at Delaware Park, but he should have won. Blocked on the far turn and into the lane, he steadied between rivals in the stretch, re-rallied outside, and missed by a neck. Joe Bravo takes over Saturday.
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Sacco plans to return to Del Mar next week with It Can Be Done, an improving 3-year-old turf gelding who will run Nov. 27 in the Grade 1 Hollywood Derby pending a final workout.
Kiss Today Goodbye would be a surprise, considering drubbings in his last three starts. All came with excuses, according to Kruljac, who said the colt did not handle the Gulfstream Park surface in January, disliked the kickback in March at Santa Anita, and bled in July.
“He reacts to kickback worse than any horse I’ve ever had,” Kruljac said. “His best performances are when he can avoid the kickback. The outside is good for us.”
Kiss Today Goodbye drew post 8 under Kent Desormeaux.