O'Neill with five, Baffert with two make up Bob Hope field
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Bob Baffert and Doug O’Neill both said they were frustrated when they looked at the entries for the $100,000 Bob Hope Stakes on Sunday at Del Mar. If not for two horses coming from Baffert and five coming from O’Neill, the juvenile race likely would not have been run for a second consecutive year.
“For some reason, the 2-year-old California crop has been very low,” Baffert said. “I don’t know what happened at Del Mar. I don’t know where they went.”
In a perfect world, O’Neill and Baffert both said they would have looked for allowances for at least a few of the seven juveniles they entered in the Bob Hope. This applies especially in O’Neill’s case, as the trainer will have to take advantage of this spot with five horses who simply need a next start.
“It’s one of those where they’re all doing well, and it’s the state of the game right now, with not a lot of opportunities,” O’Neill said. “Really, the only winners race for 2-year-olds at Del Mar is the Bob Hope, so I didn’t have a lot of options.”
As he did in the $100,000 Desi Arnaz on Saturday, Baffert paired up an experienced graded stakes runner with a last-out maiden winner in the seven-furlong Bob Hope. Domus is coming off two distant defeats in Grade 1 company, while Kivo switched to dirt in his second start to win a maiden special weight at Santa Anita last month.
In both of his Grade 1 tries, Domus finished fourth behind Hughes, his undefeated stablemate who went on to win the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. He has not yet run back to his debut, when he won by 5 1/2 lengths with an 83 Beyer Speed Figure.
“Domus is very aggressive and I’m taking the blinkers off of him,” Baffert said. “He’s a horse that has a lot of speed. You just have to let him run.”
Kivo, who debuted on turf, fared much better at six furlongs on dirt last time out, earning his maiden victory with a 73 Beyer. Baffert said he plans to try two turns soon.
O’Neill’s quintet comes from a wide range of backgrounds, with the trainer emptying the barn with horses ready to run. He was especially excited about Dats Improbable, who arrived last month after two starts in Maryland for trainer Somraj Singh.
“He’s done nothing but wow us in the mornings,” O’Neill said. “He’s doing really, really well, put in an exceptional work the other day at Del Mar and we got [Umberto] Rispoli to ride him. Eager to see him continue to progress.”
Last-out maiden winners Sip It and Fractious came from off the pace to get the job done at Santa Anita, with Sip It winning on turf with an 81 Beyer. O’Neill said he expects both juveniles to come calling in the late stages in their stakes debuts.
High Pronto has successfully taken the early lead in all three of his career dirt starts. In the $100,000 Speakeasy at five furlongs on turf last month, he was forced to stalk and finished fourth by 4 1/4 lengths.
Dang Son finished 40 lengths behind Hughes in the American Pharoah last time and will cut back to seven furlongs.
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