Red Flag to skip Los Alamitos Futurity and rest for winter campaign

The two-turn challenge facing 2-year-old stakes winner Red Flag will not be resolved until next year, as plans call for the colt to pass the Grade 2 Los Alamitos Futurity on Dec. 19 and aim for a winter campaign at Santa Anita, said trainer John Shirreffs.

Red Flag scored a convincing victory in the seven-furlong Grade 3 Bob Hope Stakes on Sunday at Del Mar to apparently emerge as a candidate for the 1 1/16-mile Los Alamitos Futurity. However, Red Flag was not nominated to the Futurity and Shirreffs said he will not be supplemented.

“That racetrack has a little different configuration to it,” Shirreffs said of Los Alamitos. “Horses that have never been on it, it’s a big disadvantage when you go over there.”

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Shirreffs, based at Santa Anita most of the year, has started just 10 runners at Los Alamitos since daytime Thoroughbred racing began there in 2014.

Red Flag started at 10.70-1 in the Bob Hope, second longest shot in the field after a low-rated maiden win on turf in which broke slowly and raced greenly. But jockey Victor Espinoza told Shirreffs that Red Flag was a different horse in the warmup for the Bob Hope.

“Victor said he felt really confident because he warmed up really well, like he knew what he was supposed to do,” Shirreffs said.

Red Flag broke running in the Bob Hope, pressed the pace while wide, and won by more than seven lengths. He earned an 80 Beyer.

Now 2 for 3, Red Flag is by first-crop stallion Tamarkuz, the 2016 Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile winner. Jerry and Tina Moss own Red Flag, whose next race is undetermined. An early-winter option is the Grade 3 Sham Stakes, a mile race at Santa Anita typically run in January. Shirreffs won with 2017 Sham with Gormley. Santa Anita has not released its 2020-21 winter stakes schedule.