Mandella hoping to break Baffert's CashCall Futurity streak

Extra Hope followed an impressive win in a maiden special weight race at 1 1/16 miles at Santa Anita on Oct. 21 with a fourth in the Grade 3 Bob Hope Stakes at seven furlongs at Del Mar on Nov. 17.

Undeterred by the recent loss, trainer Richard Mandella and owner and breeder Samantha Siegel are planning a more difficult assignment for Extra Hope – Saturday’s Grade 1 Los Alamitos CashCall Futurity at 1 1/16 miles.

The distance of the $300,000 Los Alamitos Futurity holds particular appeal for Mandella.

“The seven-eighths was a little too quick for him,” Mandella said. “It makes you think the mile and a sixteenth will be better for him.”

By Shanghai Bobby, Extra Hope beat maidens by 8 3/4 lengths in his fourth start. In the $100,000 Bob Hope Stakes, Extra Hope closed from last in a field of five to finish 2 1/4 lengths behind winner Mucho Gusto, the 4-5 favorite. Mandella was pleased by Extra Hope’s finish.

An encouraging race on Saturday would put Extra Hope among the leading California hopes for the major stakes for 3-year-olds in the winter and spring.

“It’s fun having him,” Mandella said.

Mandella is hoping to break trainer Bob Baffert’s hold on the Los Alamitos Futurity. Since the race was moved from Hollywood Park to Los Alamitos in 2014, Baffert has won all four runnings with Dortmund, Mor Spirit, Mastery, and McKinzie.

Mandella won the race twice when it was run at Hollywood Park – with Afternoon Deelites in 1994 and Into Mischief in 2007.

This year, Baffert has Mucho Gusto and Improbable as candidates. Improbable won the one-mile Street Sense Stakes on Nov. 2 at Churchill Downs. Other probable starters are Dueling, Gunmetal Gray, and King of Speed.

Sunday at Santa Anita, Dueling and Gunmetal Gray both worked five furlongs in 1:01.40. On Monday, Improbable worked five furlongs in 59.80 seconds, while Mucho Gusto was clocked for the same distance in 1:00.

King of Speed, a multiple stakes winner on turf, will be ridden for the first time by Kent Desormeaux, who replaces the recently retired Gary Stevens. King of Speed finished 12th in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf over a yielding course at Churchill on Nov. 2.

“He couldn’t handle the racetrack at Churchill Downs,” trainer Jeff Bonde said. “He was nowhere to be found.”

Owned by David and John Del Secco, King of Speed won consecutive starts in the Del Mar Juvenile Turf on Sept. 2 and the Zuma Beach Stakes at a mile on turf at Santa Anita on Oct. 8.