Right Hand Man can boost Bonde ahead of Del Mar

ARCADIA, Calif. – The promising 2-year-old Right Hand Man tries to end a stakes drought for trainer Jeff Bonde in Saturday’s $125,000 Santa Anita Juvenile.

Bonde is winless in stakes since Distinctiv Passion won the Grade 3 Los Angeles Handicap at Santa Anita in May 2015. A win by Right Hand Man would boost Bonde’s stable days before he sends 25 horses to Del Mar for the track’s summer meeting, which begins July 15.

Bonde had seven stakes wins in Southern California in 2012, five in 2013, one in 2014, and two last year.

Owned by a partnership that includes the Blinkers On Racing syndicate, Right Hand Man won his debut in a maiden special weight race at five furlongs at Santa Anita on June 10, leading throughout. Ridden by Stewart Elliott, Right Hand Man won by 1 1/2 lengths as a 3-1 shot in a field of 10.

“He’s a good horse,” Bonde said. “He probably went into the race one work short. He’s a big boy. I think he’ll improve off that race.”

The Santa Anita Juvenile is run at 5 1/2 furlongs and is the first stakes for 2-year-olds in Southern California this year. Saturday’s program includes the $125,000 Landaluce Stakes for 2-year-old fillies at 5 1/2 furlongs. Those races are the final stakes of the Santa Anita spring-summer meeting, which ends Sunday.

Bonde said he will have a “fair amount” of 2-year-olds at Del Mar.

“We’ve got some 2-year-olds to fight the fight and some older horses coming back,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of Cal-breds that are getting into the system.”

A big race from Right Hand Man on Saturday could propel the colt into Del Mar’s two graded stakes for 2-year-old males – the $200,000 Best Pal Stakes at 6 1/2 furlongs on Aug. 13 and the $300,000 Del Mar Futurity on Sept. 5.

All the nominees for the Landaluce and Santa Anita Juvenile ran in a maiden race in their last start. None has stakes experience.

The Santa Anita Juvenile will not include Milton Freewater, a maiden-race winner at Los Alamitos in April who was bought for $250,000 at the Barretts May sale of 2-year-olds in training at Del Mar. Trainer Doug O’Neill said this week that Milton Freewater was briefly sidelined by sore shins in June and has resumed light training for a potential start at Del Mar this summer.