Gold Phoenix returns in allowance as prep for Del Mar Handicap
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Two weeks after he was scratched from the Grade 2 Eddie Read Stakes, the veteran gelding Gold Phoenix is entered in a tough allowance race at a mile on turf at Del Mar on Saturday – along with six other stakes winners.
Gold Phoenix was withdrawn from the Read Stakes after he sustained “a minor scratch on a pastern,” trainer Phil D’Amato said at the time.
Saturday’s allowance race is designed as a prep race for the Grade 2 Del Mar Handicap at 1 3/8 miles on turf on Aug. 30, a race Gold Phoenix has won the last three years.
“That’s the goal,” D’Amato said earlier this week. “We need to get a race into him. A mile works ideally. It will give him something sharp and something to finish into. Then we’ll stretch him out.”
Gold Phoenix, a winner of 8 of 25 starts and $1,842,507, is best known for his success in races longer than a mile, but did win the Grade 1 Frank Kilroe Mile on turf at Santa Anita in March 2023.
D’Amato does not rule out the chances of a win by Gold Phoenix on Saturday.
“When you have a class horse, I don’t think it’s out of the question,” he said. “We’d love to win but most important we would love to win the Del Mar Handicap.”
Gold Phoenix, who races for the partnership of Agave Racing, Little Red Feather Racing, Sterling Stables and Marsha Naify, drew post 2 in a field of seven.
A 7-year-old, Gold Phoenix should have a pace to follow from the stakes winners Final Boss and Air Force Red, who were fourth and eighth in the Wickerr Stakes at a mile on turf on July 19.
Final Boss, winner of the 2024 Cinema Stakes for 3-year-olds on turf at Santa Anita, led Air Force Red by a length early in that field. Air Force Red faded in the final furlong. A winner of 7 of 28 starts, Air Force Red has won from off the pace in the past, most recently in the Grade 3 San Simeon Stakes for turf sprinters at Santa Anita in March.
Last summer, Air Force Red led throughout an allowance race at 1 1/16 miles on turf at Del Mar after he was allowed to set a slow pace. The early tempo should be stronger on Saturday.
A quick pace will help the veterans Astronomer and Beyond Brilliant. Astronomer, a stakes winner at a mile on turf at Del Mar in 2021, was fifth in the Wickerr in his first start since February. He may benefit from the recent start, as can Beyond Brilliant, who had not raced since November 2022 when he finished ninth of 10 in the Wickerr.
Trainer John Sherriffs envisions Beyond Brilliant getting a stalking trip. Beyond Brilliant drew the outside post on Saturday.
“I’m looking forward to the race,” Shirreffs said. “In his comeback, he got in a little traffic right out of the gate and he had to take back.
“With an outside it, it won’t happen. I want him free-running until he finds his spot.”
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