Lane Way can score overdue stakes win in Clockers' Corner
First, there was the Grade 3 Green Flash Handicap at Del Mar last summer, followed by the Grade 2 Eddie D Stakes at Santa Anita in September, and the Grade 2 Joe Hernandez Stakes at Santa Anita on Dec. 31.
In each of those turf sprints in the last six months, Lane Way closed well to finish second.
“He’s been second enough times,” trainer Richard Mandella said on Friday. “I’d like to win one.”
The opportunity exists in Sunday’s $100,000 Clockers’ Corner Stakes at about 6 1/2 furlongs on the hillside turf course at Santa Anita. The race is restricted to non-winners of a graded stakes since the beginning of 2022.
Lane Way is overqualified. A 6-year-old gelding, Lane Way won an allowance race on the hillside turf course on Nov. 6 amid those second-place finishes. Lane Way was held in such regard in the fall that he was pre-entered for the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint at Keeneland, but did not draw a berth in the race.
A successful run on Sunday could lead to a start in the Group 1 Al Quoz Sprint at Meydan Racecourse in Dubai on March 25, although Mandella downplayed the thought of that trip on Friday.
“Let’s see after we run,” he said. “It’s a possibility.”
Lane Way will be ridden by his regular rider, Mike Smith. In recent starts, Lane Way has closed from off the pace or raced from a stalking position. Lane Way is the sort of gelding that can adapt to a race scenario, Mandella said.
“He can kind of go either way,” Mandella said. “He’s got speed and he takes back nice.”
Lane Way has the best recent stakes form of the eight runners entered in the Clockers’ Corner.
Motorious has been the sharpest runner in the last two months. Trained by Phil D’Amato for Anthony Fanticola, Motorious has won his last two starts in allowance races at five furlongs at Del Mar on Nov. 27 and on the hillside turf course on Jan. 2.
The wins have left D’Amato hopeful Motorious can develop into a graded stakes winner this year.
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“We had high expectations from the get-go,” D’Amato said.
Bought for approximately $308,000 at a horses in-training sale in England in the fall of 2021, Motorious was second and third in allowance races last March and April before he was given a layoff of nearly seven months.
Motorious has been plagued by slow starts, but D’Amato does not consider the issue to be a concern.
“I think he’s done much better the last two times and especially the last time,” he said. “He’s a happy and healthy horse.”
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