Hero Status, Woodbine Way set for best on Thursday

One is a two-turn maiden who is the most probable winner Thursday at Del Mar. Another is an uncertain allowance turf sprinter in the most puzzling race of the day.

Even though Hero Status and Woodbine Way seem to have little in common, they share one characteristic – expectations for a top effort Thursday. Hero Status is the likely favorite in race 4, Woodbine Way has a shot in race 7. Both enter with attributes beyond those in the past performances.

Hero Status has hit the board in all three of his starts, all sprints, including an 88 Beyer runner-up finish last out. But trainer Mark Glatt believes the 3-year-old wants to route.

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“He sprinted twice, and at the end of Santa Anita, we entered him going a mile,” Glatt said. “That’s what he wants to do.”

Trouble is, the mile race did not fill. Glatt could either sit on Hero Status and wait for Del Mar, or sprint him again.

“We thought unless he caught a super-horse, we’d be in good shape,” Glatt said.

The pace was intense – 21.22 first quarter, 43.31 half.

“They went so fast, he got fairly well back and came with a run,” Glatt said.

Too late. Hero Status missed by half-length, and would have won if the sprint was longer than 6 1/2 furlongs.

Thursday in race 4 at one mile, Hero Status and jockey Edwin Maldonado should be forwardly placed, and Hero Status appears a likely winner at relatively low odds. His rivals include last-out route runner-up Palagio, front-runner Go Joe Won, and stretch-out Donner Lake.

Race 7 is a perplexing entry-level allowance for fillies and mares at five furlongs on turf. Woodbine Way figures as a contender based on her 3-for-9 East Coast form, which includes two relatively fast turf-sprint wins. But neither start in California for new trainer Leonard Powell went her way. She finished next to last, and last.

“First out, you can see on the replay she got really impeded on the turn and taken out,” Powell accurately said. “Last time, he kind of sent her out of the gate and she just ran off. And she came out of race with an entrapped epiglottis.”

The breathing issue was corrected, and Woodbine Way’s new rider Thursday is Florent Geroux. Woodbine Way’s form in the East is fast enough, but Geroux faces a tough task to work out a trip.

“It’s going to be tricky to ride her,” Powell said. “She’s in the one-hole, and there’s quite a bit of speed in the race. She cannot be sent hard or she runs off, but she’s not the type you can take back and make a run.”

The ideal scenario is for Woodbine Way to tuck third on the rail, behind Stressed and The Arcadian Way, and get first run. Her main rivals are Del Mar Drama and Stressed. Front-runners won five of the first seven turf sprints the first two weeks of the meet, with temporary rails at zero, 12 and 24 feet. The turf rails move to the outermost 30-foot setting Thursday.