Santa Anita: Rolling Fog tries to shake off rust

ARCADIA, Calif. – The most accomplished horse in Friday’s second race at Santa Anita is the undefeated Rolling Fog, the winner of the Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity in September 2012.

The problem is Rolling Fog has not started since then, plagued by injuries in the last 16 months.

In Friday’s $60,000, second-level allowance race over 6 1/2 furlongs, Rolling Fog’s perfect 2-for-2 record is in jeopardy when he starts against a strong field. His five rivals include Follini, Let’s Get Crackin, and Wild Dude, who won allowance races or optional claimers in late 2013, as well as the 2012 stakes winners American Act and Roman Threat.

Rolling Fog beat maidens in his debut at Del Mar on Aug. 4, 2012 and won the Del Mar Futurity a month later. Last spring, Rolling Fog was in training before he was sidelined. He resumed training in late summer.

“He was doing well last year, but he had a shoulder that was bothering him,” trainer Bob Baffert said. “He’s been working well. He’s coming off a long layoff, but he’s a good horse.”

Baffert knows that Rolling Fog must be at his best to win Friday’s race.

“There are no easy spots in California,” he said. “When you get a two-other-than, they might as well put a Grade 3 on it. It’s tough.”

Baffert also starts Roman Threat, a 6-year-old gelding who has won 2 of 5 starts. Roman Threat won the Grade 3 Los Angeles Handicap at Hollywood Park in 2012. He made two starts in the second half of 2013, finishing fifth in the Pirate’s Bounty Stakes at Del Mar and the Grade 1 Santa Anita Sprint Championship.

“When he runs his race, he’s very tough,” Baffert said.

Follini, who drew the outside post, is likely to set the pace. He won a first-level optional $40,000 claimer over six furlongs at Hollywood Park on Nov. 30.

“I like the post,” trainer Mark Glatt said. “I think he might be the speed. It’s a six-horse field, but it’s not an easy six-horse field.”

Let’s Get Crackin and Wild Dude meet for the second time on Friday. In a first-level optional $40,000 claimer over six furlongs on Sept. 29, Let’s Get Crackin and Wild Dude finished one-two, separated by 2 3/4 lengths.

Let’s Get Crackin followed that with a second to Secret Circle in an optional claimer on Oct. 14. Secret Circle won the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Santa Anita in his next start.

“The two races that Let’s Get Crackin comes out of are serious races,” said the 5-year-old gelding’s trainer, Bill Spawr.

Wild Dude, trained by Jerry Hollendorfer, won an allowance race over 6 1/2 furlongs at Hollywood Park on Dec. 1.