Omaha Beach has quick work that pleases Mandella

ARCADIA, Calif. – Omaha Beach, unraced since a win in the Arkansas Derby in April, zoomed a fast half-mile at Santa Anita on Friday.

Officially, Omaha Beach was timed in 46.60 seconds, but trainer Richard Mandella recorded the workout in 46 seconds, as did some people watching with him.

“A couple of us got 46 flat,” Mandella said.

Regardless, Omaha Beach had a quick workout in advance of a scheduled start in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Sprint Championship at six furlongs on Oct. 5. The $300,000 Sprint Championship will be the shortest race of Omaha Beach’s career.

Omaha Beach worked in company with a stablemate and had workers from other stables farther in front at the start of the exercise.

“There were four that were working ahead of him quite a ways away,” Mandella said. “By the quarter pole, he had cruised behind them. Omaha beat all of them to the wire.

“He couldn’t be better.”

Mandella said he timed Omaha Beach galloping out five furlongs in 59 seconds. The six-furlong distance of the Sprint Championship is not a concern, he said.

“I think he might be pretty good at it,” Mandella said.

Omaha Beach won a maiden special weight race at seven furlongs by nine lengths at Santa Anita on Feb. 2 after having run in turf races at a mile and 1 1/16 miles in his first three starts.

Owned by Rick Porter, Omaha Beach had his spring campaign disrupted. He was the morning-line favorite for the Kentucky Derby, but was withdrawn three days before the race when diagnosed with an entrapped epiglottis that required a minor procedure.

Omaha Beach was rested on a Kentucky farm in May before he was sent back to Mandella’s California stable. Last month, Omaha Beach missed a scheduled start in the Shared Belief Stakes at Del Mar because of an illness.

The Santa Anita Sprint Championship will include the sharp 3-year-old Shancelot, and two runners trained by John Sadler – Flagstaff and Horse Greedy. Cistron, who won the Grade 1 Bing Crosby Stakes at Del Mar on July 27, will not start, Sadler said.

“He came up a little funky behind,” Sadler said. “He’s in jeopardy of missing the Breeders’ Cup.”

The winner of the Santa Anita Sprint Championship receives a fees-paid berth to the BC Sprint here on Nov. 2.

Sadler has several runners in stakes next weekend, including Catapult in the Grade 2 City of Hope Mile on turf, Selcourt in the Grade 3 LA Woman Stakes for fillies and mares at 6 1/2 furlongs on Oct. 5, and Encoded in the Zuma Beach Stakes for 2-year-olds at a mile on turf Oct. 6.