Margot's Boy looks to end long win drought

Whether or not Margot’s Boy wins the eighth-race allowance feature Saturday at Los Alamitos, at least the pace scenario will be less surprising than his most recent start Aug. 19 at Del Mar.

Tempers flared in the jockeys’ room that day. Margot’s Boy finished second after unrelenting pace pressure from longshot Parsimony. Juan Hernandez rode Margot’s Boy, Mario Gutierrez rode fifth-place finisher Parsimony, and neither rider was happy.

“Juan and Mario were screaming at each other in Spanish,” a jockeys’ room eyewitness said. What did they say? “I don’t know, I don’t speak Spanish.”

Margot’s Boy had won the battle, but lost the war. Forced to move early in the marathon, he disposed of Parsimony, only to be collared by a late closer. Perhaps the pace caught Hernandez and Margot’s Boy by surprise at Del Mar, but Saturday at Los Alamitos the speed is blatantly obvious.

The sprinter Risk and Reward stretches out, should be loose, and might be gone. And yet Margot’s Boy is the most likely winner. He figures to be positioned second in the entry-level allowance, which is the substitute feature after the $75,000 Phone Chatter Stakes for 2-year-old fillies was canceled due to insufficient entries.

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Seven entered the entry-level allowance/optional-claiming mile. Willy the Cobbler drops from a stakes race and returns to the track on which he won a maiden race by six lengths; On Raglan Road, who has won the condition, is entered for the optional $40,000 tag. Other entrants include Tizhotndusty, The Beat, and Signofthecross.

Margot’s Boy has been a frustrating moneymaker for owner-breeder Alfred “Sonny” Pais and trainer Craig Lewis. He has earned $232,216, but since winning three of his first four starts, the Clubhouse Ride gelding has lost 14 straight. The drought could end Saturday.

The recent runner-up finish by Margot’s Boy was in a second-level allowance on turf. He drops Saturday to first-level allowance, a condition he previously won on turf. He retains first-level dirt eligibility due to a Los Alamitos condition-book clause: “Any horse that wins an open first and second condition allowance race on turf will be eligible to run in the same condition on dirt.”

Margot’s Boy is 0 for 5 on dirt, but has run well, particularly at Los Alamitos, where three starts produced a second and two thirds. Based on his second-level allowance runner-up on turf and first-level allowance runner-up in June on Los Alamitos dirt, Margot’s Boy enters as the most probable winner of the feature. His challenge is to wear down the likely lone speed.

Risk and Reward wired maiden sprinters two starts back with an 89 Beyer Speed Figure that is higher than the 88-Beyer career best of Margot’s Boy. But when Risk and Reward faced winners last out, he broke inward from the rail, dueled, and cracked. He finished eighth.

Los Alamitos leading rider Abel Cedillo is back aboard Risk and Reward, who could be loose on the lead. A 3-year-old by Frosted, Risk and Reward is trained by Bob Baffert.