Onebadshark likely to get better setup

SAN MATEO, Calif. - Six tough-as-nails sprinters line up for Sunday's $55,000-added Big Jag Handicap at Bay Meadows.

A six-furlong race, the Big Jag will have four stakes winners, including defending champion My Captain. Attack Force, who hasn't been worse than second in his past five starts, and Jagged Ice, who has three wins and a second in his past four starts, will also run.

"The post will be important," said Brian Koriner, who trains Onebadshark. Koriner had hoped to draw to the outside, but Onebadshark drew post 2. My Captain drew the rail, not the ideal spot, but he has enough speed to avoid being shuffled back into the turn.

There is no clear speed in the race, but My Captain and Onebadshark, as well as the two horses on the outside, Attack Force and Jagged Ice, can all run 44-and-change half-miles.

Jerry Hollendorfer trainees Sirpa and Halo Cat drew the 3 and 4 holes. Hollendorfer developed Halo Cat into a stakes winner in 2002. Halo Cat was gone for more than a year before he won his comeback in the Ernest Finley at Santa Rosa. He has since run fourth in the Governor's Cup Handicap at Fairplex.

A 42-and-change opening half in the Ernest Finley set it up for Halo Cat and cooked Onebadshark, who finished eighth.

"He didn't ship well to Santa Rosa and got hot in the post parade," Koriner said of Onebadshark. "They went so fast early, it was like he decided not to play that day."

Koriner said Onebadshark was taken too far off the pace in his next start, at Del Mar, when he was fifth.

"He's very good right now," Koriner said. "He's trained on this track all his life but only ran one race here in his debut."

Sherman said My Captain, second to Halo Cat in the Finley after pressing the pace early, is also doing well.

"He's always had quarter crack problems," Sherman said. "That's why we've run him sparingly. He's been doing good in the mornings, and he looks excellent."

Most in the race are stalkers. In a similar situation in the California Sprint Championship last month, Green Team took the lead and won wire to wire.