Gas Total takes off-the-turf Osunitas

DEL MAR, Calif. – Gas Total’s versatility proved beneficial on Saturday at Del Mar, when the $88,480 Osunitas Stakes was moved from turf to dirt, which forced the scratch of nine of the 14 entrants. Gas Total, though, has won races on dirt and turf, so the switch didn’t bother her, and she responded by rallying to nail My Monet in the closing yards and win the 1 1/16-mile race for older females.

Gas Total ($4.20), the favorite, was well back in fourth in the field of five for much of the race, but made a sustained run in the center of track through the lane and got up to beat My Monet by a neck. Theater Star was another two lengths back in third, a head in front of Istanford. She’s Flush trailed badly.

Flavien Prat rode Gas Total, who needed 1:46.68 to complete 1 1/16 miles on a main track that was listed as “good.”

Richard Mandella, who trains Gas Total for her breeder, Brazil-based Haras Phillipson, said he was kicking himself early in the race for having run Gas Total in a 1 1/2-mile race in her prior start. “I was thinking, ‘You dummy, you took all the run out of her’,” he said.

“I felt really confident 50 yards out,” he said.

Gas Total was winning for the fifth time in 28 starts. After beginning her career in South America, she spent time in France before arriving in Mandella’s barn for a 2015 campaign that has seen her win twice and finish second twice in four starts so far.

Mandella said the Grade 2, $200,000 Yellow Ribbon Handicap on turf on Sept. 6 might be the next spot for Gas Total.

“She’s good on either surface,” he said.

That certainly was true Saturday.