Obviously set to make comeback in Del Mar Mile

DEL MAR, Calif. – Obviously has done more than expected to convince trainer Phil D’Amato a start in the $250,000 Del Mar Mile on turf Aug. 23 is justified.
Unraced since finishing fifth behind Karakontie in the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Santa Anita last November, Obviously worked five furlongs on turf in 1:01.40 Sunday. The exercise surprised D’Amato.

“It looked like he was just galloping around there,” he said.

D’Amato and owners Anthony Fanticola and Joe Scardino hope to have Obviously in the BC Mile at Keeneland on Oct. 31. The Grade 2 Del Mar Mile is a key part of that plan.

“I wasn’t going to run if he wasn’t 100 percent ready to win first time out,” D’Amato said.

The Del Mar Mile will be a test for the 7-year-old Obviously, who has won 11 of 22 starts and earned $1,412,361. Obviously has won seven stakes, including the Del Mar Mile in 2012 and 2013. Last year, Obviously was fourth in the Del Mar Mile after a slow start.

In the 2014 BC Mile, Obviously led by as many as four lengths in the stretch and faded in the final sixteenth to finish 2 3/4 lengths behind Karakontie.

The Del Mar Mile will be a tough race for a comeback. The list of candidates includes Bal a Bali, who won the Grade 3 American Stakes at Santa Anita on May 9 but was fifth behind Talco in the Grade 1 Shoemaker Mile there June 13. Talco also is a leading candidate for the Del Mar Mile.

Other possible starters are Avanzare, Jimmy Bouncer, Pure Tactics, Rock Me Baby, and Winning Prize.

D’Amato will have two runners in Saturday’s top turf race – the $250,000 Del Mar Handicap at 1 3/8 miles on turf in Big John B and Danas Best.

Big John B won the Del Mar Handicap in 2014 and was later ninth in the BC Turf at Santa Anita. Earlier this year, Big John B won the Grade 3 Cougar II Handicap at 1 1/2 miles on the main track here July 24. Danas Best, a 6-year-old Australian-bred gelding, was a seven-time winner in Australia from 2012 to earlier this year but was banned from racing in that country because of repeated incidents of bleeding.

Other possible starters are Ashleyluvssugar, Finnegans Wake, Ganesh, Power Ped, and possibly Soi Phet.

The top sprint Saturday is the $250,000 Pat O’Brien Stakes at seven furlongs, which has Breeders’ Cup implications. The winner receives a fees-paid berth to the BC Dirt Mile if nominated to the Breeders’ Cup program before pre-entries are due in mid-October.

Wild Dude and Kobe’s Back, the first and third finishers in the Grade 1 Bing Crosby Stakes on July 26, are part of an expected small field that will include Appealing Tale, Indexical, and Turnover.