Red Carpet rolled out for class-dropping Luck
DEL MAR, Calif. – To succeed in the Grade 3, $100,000 Red Carpet Handicap on Thursday at Del Mar, one looks like she’ll need plenty of Luck.
Luck, an unlucky loser to stablemate Going to Vegas in the Grade 1 Rodeo Drive last time out, gets significant class relief and looms an overwhelming favorite in the Red Carpet, a 1 3/8-mile grass race for fillies and mares, the feature on the Thanksgiving card, which starts the final week of the meet here.
The Red Carpet goes as the sixth race on an eight-race card, which commences at 11 a.m. Pacific.
Luck has displayed plenty of talent in her two starts in this country since being repatriated from France, where her owners and breeders – the LNJ Foxwoods of Larry, Nancy, and Jaime Roth – sent her to begin her career. She arrived in Southern California this summer and made an immediate impression in her first start at Del Mar, closing furiously to beat a first-level allowance field.
The vanquished that day included England’s Rose, one of her rivals Thursday, who came out of that race to win her next two starts.
Luck was immediately thrown into the Rodeo Drive, and she nearly won it, despite a pace situation that helped Going to Vegas and hindered Luck. She ran her final quarter-mile of the 1 1/4-mile grass race in 22.32 seconds, but came up a head short while earning a Beyer Speed Figure of 97, tops among this field.
“She ran great,” said her trainer, Richard Baltas. “We knew Going to Vegas was going to be lone speed. She ran with all her might, almost got there.”
Luck was considered for the Grade 1 Matriarch at one mile this Sunday, but the shorter distance of that race, plus the desire to move Luck along toward her 2022 campaign, made the Red Carpet a preferred option for Baltas and the Roths.
“I talked it over with the owners, and we agreed to go here and then get her ready for next year,” Baltas said.
Flavien Prat, who rode Luck in the Rodeo Drive, is back aboard.
England’s Rose is seeking her third straight victory. Her streak began with a first-level allowance win going 1 3/8 miles at Del Mar in September, and she followed that up with a late-running win in the restricted Swingtime on Oct. 9 at Santa Anita.
Neige Blanche pressed the pace in the Rodeo Drive before tiring to finish fourth of nine. She won going this trip in her prior start, in the CTT and TOC Stakes during the summer meeting.
Nicest, third earlier this year in the Irish Oaks, should appreciate firm ground after running fourth in the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Cup on a yielding course at Keeneland last time out in her U.S. debut. She since has moved to trainer Michael McCarthy.
Single Soul won a first-level allowance at Belmont Park in her last start, with a Beyer of 82.