Practical Move takes inside route to Los Alamitos Futurity triumph

CYPRESS, Calif. - The practical move aboard the colt Practical Move in Saturday’s Grade 2 Los Alamitos Futurity at Los Alamitos was an inside path through the final three furlongs.

Jockey Ramon Vazquez had Practical Move in a tracking position on the backstretch when he opted to move his mount to the rail for the stretch run. The decision led to an upset by Practical Move in the track’s leading race for 2-year-olds.

Practical Move ($23.20) pulled clear to win by a sharp 3 1/4 lengths over 9-2 Carmel Road. While the win was a surprise, so was the performance of 2-5 favorite Arabian Lion, who was second to the end of the backstretch before fading through the stretch to finish last under jockey John Velazquez.

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“When I got to the backstretch, he wasn’t interested in running,” Velazquez said. “I thought I’d wait for the horses to come to him and he’d engage, but he never did.”

Practical Move raced in third behind Carmel Road and Arabian Lion to the end of the backstretch, when Vazquez moved the colt to the rail.

“I was waiting to go inside or outside,” Vazquez said. “John went outside and I went inside.”

Practical Move took the lead before the eighth pole. He finished 1 1/16 miles in 1:41.65 and earned a career-best Beyer Speed Figure of 88.

“He’s a nice horse and he gave me all he’s got in the last quarter,” Vazquez said. “He won easily.”

Carmel Road, who was ridden by Juan Hernandez, held second after setting decent fractions of 23.61 seconds for the opening quarter-mile and 46.66 for a half-mile. While Carmel Road could not keep pace with Practical Move in the stretch, he did finish 4 1/4 lengths in front of 4-1 Fort Bragg.

“He was fighting with the horse on the inside, but that horse was too good,” Hernandez said. “He got beat, but I was happy with the way he ran.”

Tall Boy (59-1) finished fourth, well clear of Arabian Lion.

Arabian Lion, Carmel Road and Fort Bragg are trained by Bob Baffert, the all-time winningest trainer in the history of the race with 13 victories at Hollywood Park and Los Alamitos. Baffert won the futurity in the first seven years the race was run at Los Alamitos, beginning in 2014.

Practical Move, a colt by Practical Joke, races for Pierre and Leslie Amestoy and Roger Beasley and is trained by Tim Yakteen, a former assistant to Baffert.

Yakteen remains closely associated with Baffert. Earlier this year, Yakteen assumed brief control of a small number of leading Baffert-trained 3-year-olds while Baffert served a suspension for a medication violation stemming from a positive taken from Medina Spirit in the 2021 Kentucky Derby.

Yakteen briefly trained Taiba, who won the Santa Anita Derby in April and finished 12th in the Kentucky Derby.

Practical Move has won 2 of 5 starts and earned $194,200. The Los Alamitos Futurity was Practical Move’s second start in a stakes, preceded by a third in the Grade 3 Bob Hope Stakes at seven furlongs at Del Mar on Nov. 20.

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