Go Go, 'Funtime' vulnerable favorites

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Last year, the $150,000 B. Thoughtful Stakes on Sunday at Hollywood Park would have been a fifty-fifty proposition between Go Go and Favorite Funtime. Flip a coin, pick a graded stakes winner, go to the window.

But this is not last year, and neither Go Go nor Favorite Funtime are invincible going seven furlongs in the B. Thoughtful, race 3 on the 10-race California Gold Rush card at Hollywood Park, and the only race on the program with two graded stakes winners.

Go Go has not raced since August. Favorite Funtime is less effective sprinting. While the 5-year-old mares are the class of the field, five others enter with a fighting chance. They include upstart Song of the Moment, the most likely upsetter; Song of Summer, a late-runner hoping for a pace meltdown; and deep-closing longshots Our Here Tiz, Warren's Whistle, and Filigree.

Go Go emerged last year as California's top female sprinter, winning four graded stakes. Over her last nine starts, she has seven wins and two photo-finish losses. Go Go, not a mare one ordinarily would considerable vulnerable, was turned out with troublesome ankles and has not raced since last August.

Trainer Warren Stute fired Go Go's ankles, and put her back in training in January. "She looks as good as last year." Stute said. Her workouts support Stute's confidence - three of her last four works were the fastest of the morning. Go Go is a notoriously fast worker who always runs well fresh. She won her debut in a two-furlong race three years ago at Santa Anita. Overall, she has won eight races and $547,280 from 15 starts.

With Go Go, it may be more a question of wagering value than performance. While she is the most likely winner, bettors must decide if low odds justify the risk in backing her in her first start in eight months.

Favorite Funtime, meanwhile, has current form in her favor. Bred by John and Betty Mabee, Favorite Funtime's Feb. 17 score in the Santa Maria was the last Grade 1 win for John Mabee, who died Wednesday. Bob Baffert trains Favorite Funtime, whose win in the 7 1/2-furlong Cat's Cradle Handicap here last November could lead one to assume she is an effective sprinter. But Favorite Funtime's best races are going two turns on the front end. Her victory in the Cat's Cradle earned subpar figures all around, and came at the expense of past-their-prime veterans Feverish and Queenie Belle. Favorite Funtime can win the B. Thoughtful, though her odds will be depressed.

Song of the Moment has trained brilliantly since a three-other-than win March 29 at Santa Anita. She gets a four-pound weight break from the favorites, has sharp current sprint form, and might be overlooked in the betting.