Ninth in the BC Turf, Red King has Hollywood Turf Cup on radar; United out until 2021

Red King, a two-time stakes winner this year who was ninth in the Breeders’ Cup Turf on Saturday at Keeneland, emerged from the race in good condition and is under consideration for the Grade 2 Hollywood Turf Cup on Nov. 27 at Del Mar.

On Wednesday, Red King jogged on the Del Mar main track.

“I wouldn’t say the Hollywood Turf Cup is out of the question,” trainer Phil D’Amato said Wednesday. “I’ll let him tell me. He looked really good this morning.”

Owned by the Little Red Feather Racing partnership, Gordon Jacobsen, and Philip Belmonte, Red King finished 9 3/4 lengths behind Tarnawa in the BC Turf after racing as close as third on the backstretch. While the turf course was listed as firm for the race, D’Amato said the Keeneland course was probably not to Red King’s liking in workouts leading to the BC Turf. The course was listed as good during workouts in late October and early November.

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“The latter couple of weeks the turf course was soft and that is not him,” D’Amato said. “He needs fast and firm ground to act on. Not only that, but those were the best turf horses in the world.”

Red King is one of two candidates for the $200,000 Hollywood Turf Cup at 1 1/2 miles for the D’Amato stable along with recent acquisition Say the Word, who won the Grade 1 Northern Dancer Stakes on Oct. 18 at Woodbine.

The Turf Cup will not include United, winner of four Group 2 races this year who was eighth in the BC Turf. Trainer Richard Mandella said Wednesday that United will be pointed to the winter-spring meeting at Santa Anita.

United, 8-1 in the BC Turf, stalked pacesetter Channel Maker before stumbling on the turn and fading from contention.

“He took a bad step on the middle of the turn and never recovered,” Mandella said. “I went back to the barn real quick and he looked good, and he came out of it good. We’ll go over him again.”

United was second in the 2019 BC Turf at Santa Anita and second in the 2019 Hollywood Turf Cup as the even-money favorite.

The Turf Cup is one of seven graded stakes on turf at Del Mar on Nov. 26-29, the final weekend of the autumn meeting. In the Grade 2 Seabiscuit Handicap at 1 1/16 miles on turf on Nov. 28, D’Amato plans to start Bowies Hero, a seven-time stakes winner who has earned $1,584,720, and Count Again, another recent addition to the stable who won the Grade 3 Singspiel Stakes on Sept. 19 at Woodbine and was fourth in the Northern Dancer Stakes.