Key players in turf allowance already proven tough

ARCADIA, Calif. – The main contenders in the eighth-race allowance feature Saturday at Santa Anita prove that racehorses are both fragile and resilient. Just like horseplayers.

Santa Anita’s 10-race card of maiden, claiming, and entry-level allowance races begins at noon and unfolds concurrently with the Belmont Park stakes jubilee. But before the eighth Grade 1 on the Belmont Stakes card – anyone else like Tacitus? – bettors with any remaining wagering capital can focus on the Santa Anita feature.

Nine entered the entry-level allowance turf mile. In a figurative sense, it hardly matters how Overdue, Factorial, and Continental Divide actually run. They already beat the odds.

Overdue is the one to beat, front-runner Factorial the horse to catch, and stretch-runner Continental Divide among the closers to fear most. All three have overcome challenges that attest to their frailty and strength.

Overdue finished second last out in his initial start against winners and around two turns. That was despite post 11 and trouble into the far turn. Trainer Phil D’Amato was impressed.

“Going from five furlongs to a mile, and inheriting a not-so-hot post position, for him to overcome all that and run really well . . . he’s a horse that is going to progress nicely,” D’Amato said.

It did not always look that way. Overdue was 4 when he finally made his debut this winter. The reason for the delay was a hind-leg laceration sustained last year in a gate mishap. The injury precluded training.

“It was a range-of-motion thing, we had to stop so it would heal right,” D’Amato said. “It took a long time for the skin to heal up.”

Overdue makes his fourth start Saturday as a deserving favorite. He will have to reel in likely pacesetter Factorial.

Factorial cost $600,000 as a yearling and lost his first six starts on the East Coast. He relocated to California in late 2017, sustained an unspecified setback, and needed time off.

In his autumn comeback, he finished eighth. Trainer Richard Baltas said he had an alibi. “He had bad feet; I finally got his feet corrected.”

Factorial, 5, returned again this April, set a fast pace in a mile maiden race, and won by three-quarters of a length.

“He wants to run fast,” Baltas said. “He’s coming up to another big effort. [Edwin] Maldonado breezed him the other day, he likes him a lot.”

Continental Divide was compromised by an ambitious juvenile campaign. Runner-up in his debut, he won a statebred stakes second out, then finished fourth in another stakes race.

Too much, too soon. “You can’t run a baby three times at Del Mar,” trainer Jim Cassidy said. “After that, he just didn’t try.” He raced seven more times, never got close, and was turned out.

“Thank God he came back, put on weight, and looks good,” Cassidy said.

Continental Divide, 4, finished second, fourth, and won a statebred allowance last out. He moves up in class Saturday and will roll late facing a field that also includes Ultimate Bango, Nesbitt, Bellerin, Hootie, Ocean Fury, and Ground Attack.