A lot on the table for Heart to Heart in Shoemaker

ARCADIA, Calif. – The similarities are remarkable.

In 2016, Heart to Heart was shipped to Santa Anita for the Grade 1 Shoemaker Mile in early June after a second-place finish in the Grade 1 Maker’s 46 Mile at Keeneland in April. He had won two stakes earlier in the year at Gulfstream Park and arrived in California with a lofty reputation. He finished fourth in the Shoemaker as the 9-10 favorite.

Wednesday, Heart to Heart was shipped from New York to California for Saturday’s $400,000 Shoemaker Mile. In his last start, Heart to Heart was a game second in the Maker’s 46 Mile at Keeneland. Earlier this year, Heart to Heart won a stakes at Gulfstream Park.

This time, owner Terry Hamilton and Brian Lynch are hoping for a better result in the Shoemaker, the top turf race of Santa Anita’s spring-summer meeting.

The reasons behind the trip have stayed the same, Lynch said Wednesday morning.

“I’m hoping we can get that elusive Grade 1,” Lynch said. “I’m hoping he’s a little better going into it this year. He’s a little more mature.”

There is more at stake than the $240,000 first-place prize. The winner receives a fees-paid berth to the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Del Mar on Nov. 4, if nominated to the Breeders’ Cup program. Heart to Heart is the only nominee to the Shoemaker Mile who is not nominated to the Breeders’ Cup. That can be remedied by paying a $50,000 fee by July 15, or a $100,000 fee by pre-entry time in October.

A 6-year-old by English Channel, Heart to Heart has won 12 of 28 starts and earned $1,156,870. Hamilton, from Lethbridge, Alberta, bought Heart to Heart for $25,348 as a yearling. Heart to Heart has won 10 stakes. The second-place finishes in the Maker’s 46 Mile in the last two Aprils are his best results in Grade 1 races.

Heart to Heart is the only shipper among seven probable starters in the Shoemaker. The other expected runners are Bal a Bali, Bolo, Farhaan, Free Rose, Gangster, and What a View. All are graded stakes winners with the exception of Gangster, who was seventh in the Grade 2 Charles Town Classic on dirt in April in his last start.

Bal a Bali won the Grade 1 Frank Kilroe Mile on turf in March, and was fifth in the Woodford Reserve Turf Classic at Churchill Downs on May 6. What a View is making a quick turnaround, having won the Crystal Water Stakes for California-bred turf milers on May 20.

There are two Grade 1 races at Santa Anita on Saturday. The $400,000 Beholder Mile for fillies and mares on the main track has only four projected starters, but two are champions – Stellar Wind, the top 3-year-old filly of 2015, and Finest City, the top female sprinter of 2016.

Trainer Bob Baffert has two runners – Vale Dori, who has won six consecutive races since last October, including five graded stakes, and Faithfully, who will have her stakes debut in a tough race.