Mc Vay ends up in nice spot
:quality(75))
Mc Vay was withdrawn from the Grade 2 San Diego Handicap at Del Mar last Saturday to start in an allowance race at a mile this Saturday.
The likely pace scenario in the allowance race may work in favor of Mc Vay, a 5-year-old who cost more than $1 million as a yearling but has yet to win a stakes.
Trained by Peter Eurton for Lee and Susan Searing’s CRK Stables, Mc Vay starts from post 8 in a field of 10 in the allowance race, the eighth race on an 11-race program.
The allowance race will be Mc Vay’s first start since he finished third by 9 1/2 lengths in the Grade 2 Hollywood Gold Cup at 1 1/4 miles at Santa Anita on May 25.
Mc Vay would have been an outsider in the San Diego Handicap, which was won by Journalism. Eurton thinks Mc Vay has a better chance on Saturday, and was left encouraged by a half-mile workout in 47.60 last Sunday.
Emisael Jaramillo, who will ride Mc Vay in a race for the first time on Saturday, was aboard for the workout.
“He seems to be doing quite a bit better,” Eurton said of Mc Vay’s condition. “He worked really nice the other day. Jaramillo liked him a lot.”
In the allowance race, Mc Vay could get a favorable trip chasing March of Time and Bartholdy who have shown speed in sprints in recent starts. Midnight Mammoth, winner of the Grade 3 Cougar II Stakes at 1 1/2 miles at Del Mar in 2024, will not be far from the front and could be a factor in the stretch.
Mc Vay has won 2 of 14 starts. In 2024, Mc Vay finished third in the Grade 2 San Felipe Stakes for 3-year-olds at Santa Anita. He was trained at the time by John Shirreffs, who died earlier this year.
Mc Vay, purchased for $1.25 million at the 2022 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga yearling sale, was sent to trainer Cherie DeVaux in the fall of 2024 and joined Eurton’s stable last winter.
Saturday’s race will dictate plans for Mc Vay later this summer. The Grade 1 Pacific Classic at 1 1/4 miles on Aug. 22 is an option, though Eurton expressed concern about the distance.
“I don’t know” where we’ll go,” he said. “We may shop around throughout the country.”
Eurton has a stakes runner this weekend with Stay Hot in a tough running of the Grade 2 Eddie Read Stakes at 1 1/8 miles on turf on Sunday.
Stay Hot has not raced since he finished fourth by 1 1/2 lengths behind Mondego in the Grade 3 San Marcos Stakes at 1 1/4 miles on turf at Santa Anita in February.
Mondego, the winner of the Grade 2 Charles Whittingham Stakes at 1 1/4 miles on turf at Santa Anita on May 2, is a contender in the $250,000 Read along with Gold Phoenix and Formidable Man, who respectively won the race in 2023 and 2025; and Almendares, who was second to Formidable Man in the Grade 1 Shoemaker Mile on turf at Santa Anita on May 25.
Stay Hot, a winner of 6 of 20 starts, has earned $743,660.
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