Road warrior Arawak arrives in California for Best Pal
DEL MAR, Calif. – From New York to England to Kentucky, Arawak has been held in the highest regard by trainer Wesley Ward in recent months.
The traveling continues this week. On Tuesday, Arawak arrived in California for Saturday’s Grade 2 Best Pal Stakes for 2-year-olds at Del Mar. The $200,000 race at 6 1/2 furlongs gives Ward a chance to prove the colt can race in a vital summer stakes for juveniles.
“I have a hunch he’ll like Del Mar,” Ward said on Wednesday morning. “We’ll take a shot.”
Arawak won his debut by seven lengths in a maiden race on a muddy track at Belmont Park on May 26, a race scheduled for turf. In the Group 2 Coventry Stakes at Royal Ascot on June 20, Arawak was an 8-1 shot in a field of 18 but faded late in the six-furlong turf race to finish 12th, beaten 6 1/4 lengths.
“He’s a big colt, a really big horse,” Ward said. “I was hopeful going into Ascot. He was fighting a little bit of a shin, and he had a fast work the week before Ascot.
“The shin came around, and we decided to run him. When he got home, we gave him some time, and he came around. He’s had a couple of really nice works.”
Ward was enthused when Arawak breezed five furlongs in 59.80 seconds at Keeneland on Aug. 1.
“It was a beautiful work,” Ward said. “He was just cruising.”
From his base in Kentucky, Ward was between the Best Pal Stakes or the Grade 2 Saratoga Special, also a $200,000 race at 6 1/2 furlongs, at Saratoga on Sunday for Arawak, who races for Derrick Smith, Michael Tabor, and Susan Magnier.
“The plane goes both ways,” he said.
The projected field for the Best Pal is led by Run Away, who won the Santa Anita Juvenile on July 2, and Serengeti, a maiden-race winner by 11 lengths in his second start on June 25. Other expected runners are An Ocala Ten, Armour Plate, Dia De Pago, Fleetwood, and Master Ruler.
◗ A memorial service for Brad McKinzie will be held at noon at St. Hedwig Catholic Churchill in Los Alamitos on Aug. 21.
McKinzie, the longtime Los Alamitos racing executive and former magazine publisher, died after a battle with cancer last Sunday.