Fleet Treat not an ideal spot for favorites
DEL MAR, Calif. – It might be wishful thinking to expect two-turn stakes winner Fi Fi Pharoah to be as effective in a sprint and turf stakes winner Closing Remarks to be as capable on dirt.
Yet while distance and footing concerns were valid before posts were drawn for the $175,000 Fleet Treat Stakes on Friday at Del Mar, they were exacerbated when the key entrants drew poorly in the sprint for Cal-bred 3-year-old fillies.
Fi Fi Pharoah and Closing Remarks, the field’s two local stakes winners, are qualified to win the seven-furlong Fleet Treat. But the Del Mar main track opening week consistently favored the outside lanes and compromised the inside paths. As bad luck would have it, Fi Fi Pharoah and Closing Remarks drew posts 1 and 2, respectively.
Nine entered the Fleet Treat, a historically predictable race won by favorites 10 of the last 21 seasons. This year, the key entrants are up against it. Fi Fi Pharoah’s two wins were routes, including a recent victory in the Melair Stakes at Santa Anita. A skeptic will wonder if she can reproduce top form shortening to a sprint.
“I know,” trainer Walther Solis said. “I am thinking the same way, but I think she is the best in the race and there’s no other place run. She’s been training super, she had a work here with [Umberto] Rispoli, and she handled it really nicely.”
If she reproduces her route form in a sprint, Fi Fi Pharoah can win the Fleet Treat. And the inside post might be less significant considering her closing style. “She wants to be in the back of the pack, and make one run,” Solis said.
Fi Fi Pharoah, owned by Tom Beckerle, Amanda Navarro, and breeder Terry Lovingier, is an American Pharoah filly produced by the ownership group’s Cal-bred stakes winner My Fiona. Fi Fi Pharoah has won 2 of 5, both wins routes with Rispoli.
Closing Remarks has never raced on dirt, and was considered for Saturday’s Grade 2 San Clemente Stakes on turf. But rather than having Closing Remarks face the streaking Going Global again in the San Clemente, owner-breeder John Harris and trainer Carla Gaines opted for the Fleet Treat.
The main track at Del Mar is not an issue for Closing Remarks, at least in the morning.
“She had a brilliant work on this surface,” Gaines said, referring to a bullet work last week in 58.60. “She galloped out in 1:11 and four and looked beautiful.”
Closing Remarks won the Cal Cup Oaks on turf in January, and finished second in a pair of stakes won by Going Global. Closing Remarks has won 2 of 7.
I’m So Anna is a two-time stakes winner in Northern California who drew favorably – post 9 of nine. Opening week, 10 of 14 sprints were won from posts 7-10.
Eddie’s New Dream finished second in the Melair and is a proven dirt sprinter. Respectfully may be the speed of the field. Wishtheyallcouldbe, Joymaker, Amazen Grazen, and Teddy’s Barino also entered.