Quick Enough seeks cleaner trip

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Quick Enough may have had the toughest trip of the Del Mar meeting this summer.

In the Green Flash Handicap over five furlongs on turf against seven rivals, he was blocked in the stretch and still finished in a dead heat for second, a nose behind California Flag.

Quick Enough faces another bulky field in Monday’s $100,000 Morvich Handicap at Hollywood Park. This time, the stakes are higher. A win could lead to a start in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint at Churchill Downs on Nov. 6.

The loss in the Green Flash Handicap has not been easy for trainer Doug O’Neill to forget.

“He ran a dynamite race and had some traffic trouble,” O’Neill said. “He’s had a good little break since that race. With a little luck, he can have a big chance. I want a nice clean trip.”

The Morvich is part of the Breeders’ Cup Win and You’re In Program, offering a guaranteed berth to the BC Turf Sprint for the winner. That is an enticing prospect for owners Michael Bello, Russ Sarno, and Pablo Suarez, O’Neill said.

“If he were to win and come back in good shape, we’d like to go,” O’Neill said of the Breeders’ Cup.

Quick Enough was claimed for $40,000 at Del Mar on Aug. 5, the day he won an optional claimer over five furlongs on turf.

Quick Enough is best as a stalker, and should have a pace to follow from Lt. Hopeful, who set the pace in the Green Flash before fading to finish fifth, beaten a half-length. A fast pace also will help Connagher, a four-time winner who makes his stakes debut, and Scenic Blast, a Group 1 winner in turf sprints in Australia and England in 2009, who is winless in three starts in the United States this year.

Scenic Blast was fifth in the Grade 2 Del Mar Mile on turf on Aug. 28, failing to close into a modest pace.

“We thought he’d close a little better and that the pace would be faster,” trainer John Shirreffs said. “We need to so something. He’s excelled at sprinting.”

The Morvich drew a field of 10 but is likely to have only nine starters after trainer Craig Dollase chose to run Tropic Storm in Saturday’s Oak Tree Mile.