Green Flash a starting point for Stormy Liberal

DEL MAR, Calif. – The only champion on display on Saturday’s five-stakes program at Del Mar may not go favored.

Stormy Liberal, the champion turf male of 2018, will race for the first time since March in the Grade 3 Green Flash Handicap at five furlongs on turf. The favorite for the $100,000 race may be Eddie Haskell, a two-time stakes winner this year who has won four of his last five starts.

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Stormy Liberal was third behind the brilliant Blue Point in the Group 1 Al Quoz Sprint in Dubai on March 30. Blue Point won two Group 1 sprints at Royal Ascot in England in June. Last year, Stormy Liberal won the Green Flash by a nose, and he clinched his championship with a hard-fought win in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint at Churchill Downs, a race he won at Del Mar in 2017.

Trainer Peter Miller wants Stormy Liberal in peak form for this year’s BC Turf Sprint on Nov. 2 at Santa Anita and said Wednesday that the 7-year-old gelding will benefit from a start in the Green Flash.

“He’s not 100 percent cranked,” Miller said. “This is not the end game. We’re looking at another prep, maybe Kentucky Downs, and then the Breeders’ Cup.”

Owned by David Bernsen and Rockingham Ranch, Stormy Liberal is winless in three starts this year. He was second in the Grade 3 Joe Hernandez Stakes on Jan. 1 at Santa Anita and second by a head to Eddie Haskell in an allowance race at five furlongs there Feb. 22.

The Green Flash is a graded stakes for the first time this year.

Saturday’s program is led by the $1 million Pacific Classic at 1 1/4 miles on dirt. Three of the five stakes are on turf. Aside from the Green Flash, the Grade 1 Del Mar Oaks at 1 1/8 miles for 3-year-old fillies and Grade 2 Del Mar Handicap at 1 3/8 miles are also run on turf.