Gimme Da Lute targets Real Good Deal
RACE REPLAY IS NOT AVAILABLE
DEL MAR, Calif. – Gimme Da Lute, a winner of graded stakes for 3-year-olds at Santa Anita and Los Alamitos in recent starts, will revert to the California-bred division for his next start.
Trainer Bob Baffert said on Friday that Gimme Da Lute will be pointed for the $200,000 Real Good Deal Stakes for California-bred 3-year-olds at seven furlongs Aug. 2. Races such as the $750,000 West Virginia Derby at Mountaineer on Aug. 1 and the $1 million Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park on Aug. 2 had been mentioned as possibilities in recent weeks.
Baffert said he decided to stay in California with Gimme Da Lute after the colt worked five furlongs in 1:00.40 on Wednesday.
“I’ll stay home for the Cal-breds,” Baffert said. “He got pretty tired after the work.”
Owned by Mike Pegram, Karl Watson, and Paul Weitman, Gimme Da Lute has won 4 of 7 starts and earned $457,560. He has won three stakes this year – the Echo Eddie Stakes for California-breds in April, the Grade 3 Affirmed Handicap at Santa Anita on June 7, and the Grade 2 Los Alamitos Derby on July 4.
Diamond Stilettos retired at 4
Diamond Stilettos, a 4-year-old Irish-bred filly, has been retired after being pulled up following Thursday’s seventh race with an ankle injury, trainer Doug O’Neill said.
Diamond Stilettos finished sixth in an optional claimer at 1 3/8 miles on turf and was vanned off on the backstretch. Owned by a partnership that includes Steven Keh, Michael House, and Robert Cspelo, Diamond Stilettos will be bred next year, O’Neill said. The filly will not need surgery for the ankle injury, O’Neill said.
By the Danzig stallion Ad Valorem, Diamond Stilettos won 3 of 11 starts and earned $75,891. A maiden-race winner in Ireland, she won two optional claimers at Golden Gate Fields and Santa Anita in this country.