Independence Hall begins new chapter in Sunday sprint

Independence Hall has the people around him thinking about Christmastime. More specifically, the day after Christmas at Santa Anita and the Grade 1 Malibu Stakes for 3-year-olds.

A two-time stakes winner, Independence Hall will have his California debut in an allowance race at 6 1/2 furlongs on Sunday at Del Mar, a race designed as a prep for the seven-furlong Malibu.

“It’s nice to be able to squeeze a race in before the Malibu,” new trainer Michael McCarthy said Friday. “I think he’ll run well and that it will set him up for Dec. 26.”

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Independence Hall has won 3 of 5 starts and earned $271,600, all under the direction of trainer Michael Trombetta in late 2019 and earlier this year. In his final start for Trombetta, Independence Hall finished fifth in a field of nine in the Grade 1 Florida Derby at Gulfstream Park on March 28. He finished 10 1/2 lengths behind the winner, Tiz the Law.

“He comes with quite the résumé and reputation,” McCarthy said. “He trains like a nice horse. He has quite the presence about him.”

Owned by Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, Twin Creeks Racing, and RKV Racing, Independence Hall has won two stakes at a mile at Aqueduct – the Grade 3 Nashua Stakes in his stakes debut last November and the Jerome Stakes on New Year’s Day.

In those wins, Independence Hall stalked the pace before drawing clear in early stretch.

Sunday’s race will offer a fitness test in the colt’s first start in more than in seven months. The field includes the multiple stakes winner Anyportinastorm, who has excelled in sprints.

Owned by Peter Redekop, Anyportinastorm was one of eight horses recently transferred from Blaine Wright to Peter Miller. The allowance race will be Anyportinastorm’s first start since a seventh-place finish in the Grade 1 Bing Crosby Stakes at six furlongs on Aug. 1 at Del Mar.

Anyportinastorm joined Miller’s stable earlier this fall. For Sunday’s race, Anyportinastorm will be fitted with blinkers for the first time in his career, which comprises eight wins from 17 starts. Anyportinastorm has won five stakes in California, New Mexico, and Washington.

“He’s a very nice horse and very straightforward,” Miller said. “We’re putting blinkers on him to try to get a little more speed out of him. The blinkers are an experiment. He’s worked well in them.”

Anyportinastorm dueled for the early lead in the Bing Crosby. He won his preceding start from the front in the Oak Tree Sprint at the Alameda County Fair in Pleasanton on July 4.

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◗ Miller also trains Anothertwistafate, who won the Grade 3 Longacres Mile at Emerald Downs on Sept. 10 in his lone start this year and first race since a 10th-place finish in the Preakness Stakes in May 2019. Redekop owns Anothertwistafate.

Miller said the Grade 2 Seabiscuit Handicap, a $200,000 race at 1 1/16 miles on turf Nov. 28 at Del Mar, is a goal for Anothertwistafate, who has never raced on grass.

Miller said Redekop’s Anneau d’Or, second in the 2019 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Santa Anita, will join his stable in early December. Anneau d’Oro was eighth in the Ellis Park Derby on Aug. 9 in his final start for Wright.