Exhalting will have to put on his running shoes in speed-filled Golden Nugget Stakes

Two exciting local products headline Saturday’s $50,000 Golden Nugget Stakes at Golden Gate Fields, with each coming off a wire-to-wire victory. But they aren’t the only front-runners in the six-furlong stakes for 2-year-olds, and something will have to give.

Exhalting, who has won three straight races, looms the likely favorite, but Mischievous Path comes off an eight-length maiden win at Golden Gate. Likely to join them in an early scramble are Southern California invader Run Snappy, who comes off a front-running maiden win at Santa Anita, and Ben Wade, a wire-to-wire maiden winner at Golden Gate.

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Exhalting made his first four starts for Doug O’Neill in Southern California. Jonathan Wong took over his training in September and has seen Exhalting score three straight wire-to-wire wins. Exhalting won a maiden sprint on turf, then a starter sprint and an allowance sprint on the Tapeta. His combined margin of victory in those three races was 12 1/2 lengths.

“He likes synthetic,” Wong said. “I think we’re seeing a natural maturity in him.”

Exhalting has increased his Beyer Speed Figure with each start, culminating with a 78 for his three length allowance score Oct. 25. That is the highest Beyer Figure in the field by 13 points.

Exhalting’s last two wins came going 5 1/2 furlongs – the farthest he has raced – and he will try to stretch his speed another sixteenth of a mile in the Golden Nugget.

Trainer Greg James was expecting a big effort from Mischievous Path in the colt’s debut, but he ran an even fourth. James said Mischievous Path had a lot of trouble in the race.

“I was really disappointed,” James said.

“You want them to have a good experience in their first race, but that wasn’t a good experience. He didn’t break and got in all kinds of trouble. He got cut off three times.

“He’d been professional from his first work and never missed a work. I really expected more.”

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James gave Mischievous Path six weeks before his second start. The result was a romp over next-out winner Copper Halo on Oct. 4.

The John Sadler-trained Run Snappy also figures to show speed. After a fifth and a sixth sprinting on the turf in his first two starts, Run Snappy won a Santa Anita maiden sprint by 4 3/4 lengths.

Rounding out the field are Corsican, who pressed Exhalting’s pace and faded to fifth in his last start, and Mando, who set the pace in the Everett Nevin before finishing fourth. He has been gelded since that race.