Hot prospect Royal Mo debuts Sunday

In the last month, the 2-year-old Royal Mo has consistently shown strong workouts.

“He has a good foundation, and he’s been good out of the gate,” trainer John Shirreffs said on Friday.

Those lessons could put Royal Mo in the winner’s circle of his debut, a maiden special weight race at six furlongs at Del Mar on Sunday. Shirreffs said he was particularly encouraged by a five-furlong workout in 59.40 seconds by Royal Mo last Monday that he described as “excellent.”

Royal Mo is part of an oversubscribed field of 14. The race will be limited to 10 starters as part of a long-standing agreement between track management and the Thoroughbred Owners of California to limit fields in 2-year-old maiden special weight races, according to Del Mar director of racing Tom Robbins.

Royal Mo, by Uncle Mo, is owned by Jerry and Ann Moss and was purchased for $300,000 at the 2015 Keeneland September yearling sale.

The main body of the race has six first-time starters, including Irish Freedom, a Pioneerof the Nile colt trained by Bob Baffert, and Vegas Itch, a Twirling Candy colt trained by George Papaprodromou.

Irish Freedom, purchased for $285,000 as a yearling, has impressed Baffert.

“He’s working well,” Baffert said. “I think he’ll go long. I want to get a race into him. He should be right there.”

Vegas Itch, bought for $80,000 at a sale of 2-year-olds in training this year, has left Papaprodromou optimistic about the colt’s prospects on Sunday.

“He might need the race, but I like the way he’s training,” Papaprodromou said.

The first-time starters must beat Honor and Courage, who was fifth as the 2-1 favorite in his debut here July 30 and may be favored in this race.

Trained by Jerry Hollendorfer, Honor and Courage disputed the lead in that race from an inside post position before fading in the final furlong. Hollendorfer has an excellent record with second-time starters.