Omaha Beach takes star role on opening day in Malibu Stakes

ARCADIA, Calif. – Richard Mandella has spent the year having to do workarounds for Omaha Beach, be it sending him to Oaklawn Park for his Kentucky Derby preps, having to nurse him back to health after getting knocked out of the Derby, and calling an audible for his comeback this fall owing to an interrupted training pattern during the summer.

The waits have been worth it, though, for Omaha Beach has continued to prove he’s one of the best horses in training. So perhaps it was entirely appropriate that there would be one last detour to his 2019 campaign, though one not of his doing, with the opening-day Runhappy Malibu at Santa Anita postponed by 48 hours.

The Grade 1, $300,000 Malibu will now be run Saturday, part of a blockbuster card that includes seven stakes races, six of them graded, three Grade 1. The graded stakes comprise races 5 through 10 on the 11-race card, with the Malibu – for 3-year-olds going seven furlongs – slotted as race 9. It all gets under way at 11 a.m. Pacific.

The $75,000 Lady of Shamrock, race 2, will be the first stakes of the meet and the first grass race. Things heat up a bit later. The Grade 2 San Antonio for older horses, race 5, launches the comeback of Santa Anita Handicap winner Gift Box. The Grade 1 American Oaks for 3-year-old turf fillies is race 6, then comes the Grade 1 La Brea for 3-year-old female sprinters, including Bellafina, the runner-up in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint, and Raven Run winner Bell’s the One.

The Grade 3 Robert Frankel for older female turf runners is race 8 and kicks off the late pick 4. The last of the stakes, the Grade 2 Mathis Brothers Mile for 3-year-old grass runners such as Hollywood Derby winner Mo Forza, is race 10.

Omaha Beach is the star attraction. He will be going for his third Grade 1 win of the year – following the Arkansas Derby and Santa Anita Sprint Championship – and will try to put himself in position to be an Eclipse Award finalist for both champion 3-year-old male and champion male sprinter. It would be a testament to his talent if he were one of the top three receiving votes in both categories.

By all indications, he’s ready to roll.

“He should be sitting on a good race, a real good one,” said Mandella, who said Omaha Beach’s recent training has been “pretty amazing.”

Only four others are signed up to face Omaha Beach, including Roadster, the Santa Anita Derby winner, and Complexity, who won the Grade 1 Champagne at 2 and seems back in his best form following a recent allowance sprint victory at Aqueduct.

Omaha Beach has proven effective anywhere from six furlongs to 1 1/8 miles, and he’s recorded Beyer Speed Figures of 101 or better in his last three starts, topped by a 104 last time out. He has won both his starts around one turn, so the cutback to seven furlongs for the Malibu after finishing second last time out in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile should suit him. He also drew well, landing the outside post, giving jockey Mike Smith plenty of options.

This will be the penultimate start for Omaha Beach, who is scheduled to conclude his racing career next month in the Pegasus World Cup before going to stud at Spendthrift Farm in Kentucky. Assuming all goes well Saturday, Mandella said his current plan is to send Omaha Beach to Gulfstream Park a few days after the Malibu so he can do all his serious training for the Pegasus there.

Complexity likely is the biggest threat to Omaha Beach. He looked like his old self last time out when recording a career-best Beyer Figure of 101. His regular rider, Jose Ortiz, had a conflict owing to the postponement of the card, so Javier Castellano has picked up the mount.

Roadster is seeking to end a four-race losing streak and will have Joel Rosario aboard for the first time. He was dull last time out in the Native Diver at Del Mar, but “he came out of the race trying to get sick,” according to his trainer, Bob Baffert.

“He never picked up the bit. After the race, we found his blood was a little off,” Baffert said. “We gave him a week off, and he’s been training really well.”

Baffert also sends out Much Better, who returned from a near six-month layoff to drop a nose decision in an allowance race at Del Mar last time out, and he’s also overseeing the longshot Manny Wah, who shipped for trainer Wayne Catalano off a good pair of recent starts in Kentucky and Ohio.