Harbored Memories should find sprint more suitable than route
Distance-challenged turf horses who need longer than five furlongs but shorter than one mile are in a pickle at Del Mar, where the gap between the longest sprint and shortest route is notable.
It leaves tweeners like Harbored Memories with a lesser-of-evils choice – abbreviated sprint or two-turn mile. A route experiment backfired on opening day when Harbored Memories got too keen early in the race and finished 10th in the Oceanside Stakes. On Friday at Del Mar, he will go the other way and cut back to five furlongs.
“I’m not crazy about five-eighths, it’s a little short,” trainer Mike Puype acknowledged. “But it’s still better than routing.”
Harbored Memories meets a deep field in Del Mar’s featured seventh race Friday, a turf-sprint allowance for 3-year-olds who have not won a stakes race since April 1. Five furlongs is sharp for Harbored Memories, but his main rivals also face obstacles.
Beer Can Man has not raced in six months. Good With People has run well on turf, but he runs best on dirt. Willy Boi has never raced on turf, nor in California. Eight are entered in the allowance. The others are River Tiber, Commander Khai, Love My Jimmy, and Poso Creek.
Harbored Memories blossomed at 6 1/2 furlongs on turf in spring at Santa Anita, where he scored fast wins in maiden and allowance races. When he stretched out as the 5-1 third choice in the one-mile Oceanside, he pulled hard early in the race and sputtered.
“He’s a high-strung horse that hasn’t learned to fully take care of himself yet,” Puype said. “To route, you need a little more relaxation; he hasn’t given that to us. But his turf sprints are all excellent – two wins and a second.”
His only turf-sprint loss was a second to subsequent Grade 1 winner Rock Your World. Friday, Harbored Memories and jockey Jose Valdivia will rally from behind in a sprint filled with speed. Theoretically, the pace scenario is beneficial.
However, the Del Mar turf has played in an unusual way this summer. While late-runners continue to dominate routes, front-runners and pressers have dominated sprints.
Through Sunday, the pacesetter had won 9 of 17 turf sprints. Six winners were positioned 2-3-4, and only two rallied from the back half of the field. That is where Harbored Memories is likely to be positioned. The turf rails are at the outermost 30-foot setting Friday; the bias has applied to all settings.
The speed-friendly profile could benefit Good With People, a two-time California-bred stakes winner on dirt who finished second in a four-horse field in his most recent start on turf. Trained by meet leader Peter Miller, Good With People is 4 for 10 overall. Flavien Prat rides.
Beer Can Man won the Grade 3 Cecil B. DeMille Stakes at a mile on turf last fall at Del Mar, followed by a third and second in turf stakes at Santa Anita. Mark Glatt trains the 3-for-7 colt, who has not raced since February. Juan Hernandez rides.
Willy Boi, winner of the Hutcheson Stakes in winter at Gulfstream Park, has won 3 of 8 and adds speed. Jeff Engler trains, and Joe Bravo rides.