Roy H in the Palos Verdes Stakes spotlight

The country’s best sprinter of 2017 is set to launch his 2018 campaign. Roy H, who secured the Eclipse Award as champion male sprinter with his victory in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint, will be an overwhelming favorite Saturday at Santa Anita in the Grade 2, $200,000 Palos Verdes Stakes, the first of four graded stakes on the card.

Roy H has won five of his last six starts, and should have won all six but the loose Drefong compromised his chances of winning the Bing Crosby at Del Mar last summer. Roy H subsequently won the Grade 1 Santa Anita Sprint Championship, then finished off the year with his Breeders’ Cup win. His last two wins both were at six furlongs, the same distance as the Palos Verdes.

Roy H represents the first champion trained by Peter Miller.

“It means a lot personally,” Miller said Thursday morning.

Roy H got a vacation following the Breeders’ Cup, but quickly was back in race mode with six workouts at Santa Anita, where assistant Ruben Alvarado oversees his day-to-day care.

“He got a month off,” said Miller, who is usually based at San Luis Rey Downs and currently has most of his runners at Del Mar. “We’ve kept him at Santa Anita because a race came up there last year and he won it, then he kept on winning. He’s comfortable there with Ruben.

“He’s doing super. Every breeze has been just very easy,” Miller said, including a five-furlong drill in 59 seconds on Jan. 18 with regular rider Kent Desormeaux. That work was the fastest of 37 at the distance.

“Kent kept him four or five lanes off the rail and had his feet in the dash,” Miller said.

Miller also entered Bobby Abu Dhabi, who comes off a second-level allowance win at Santa Anita on Dec. 31.

Only three others are entered in the Palos Verdes, which goes as race 3 on the nine-race card.

KEY CONTENDERS

Roy H, by More Than Ready
Last 3 Beyers: 111-106-98

◗ He equaled the fastest Beyer Speed Figure of his career in the Breeders’ Cup. His four rivals combined have reached 100 or more just twice in their last 35 starts.

Bobby Abu Dhabi, by Macho Uno
Last 3 Beyers: 95-81-75

◗ He won his last start while coming off a seven-month layoff.

Americanize, by Concord Point
Last 3 Beyers: 97-100-102

◗ He was a close third in the Grade 3 Midnight Lute last time out on Dec. 30, and has finished in the money in all four of his starts on Santa Anita’s main track.

Mongolian Saturday, by Any Given Saturday
Last 3 Beyers: 85-91-91

◗ The winner of the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint in 2015, he is winless in his last nine starts, all on turf. He is 1 for 11 on dirt.

Red Lightning, by Midshipman
Last 3 Beyers: 88-86-51

◗ He is making his stakes debut and only beat a first-level allowance field last time out, but his trainer, Billy Morey, is white hot this meet.