Santa Anita Sprint Championship: Goldencents faces stiff competition

[bc_video_id:306303:]ARCADIA, Calif. – Not everyone shares the opinion Goldencents is a slam-dunk cinch Saturday, when he races six furlongs in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Sprint Championship.

“We didn’t scare anyone off,” trainer Doug O’Neill said.

Eight were entered and four have something Goldencents lacks – victory in a graded sprint. Grade 1 sprint winners Points Offthebench, Centralinteligence, and Trinniberg are foes, and also entered in the Win and You’re In race for the Breeders’ Cup Sprint is Grade 3 winner Roman Threat.

Goldencents is not confirmed for the BC Sprint. O’Neill said the Dirt Mile remains an option for Goldencents, who emerged as one of California’s top sprinters this summer by finishing second at Del Mar in the Grade 1 Bing Crosby and Grade 2 Pat O’Brien.

Goldencents could have won both. He had traffic trouble in the Bing Crosby and was compromised by pace in the Pat O’Brien. Saturday, three key changes – equipment, jockey, and post – should produce his first win since the Santa Anita Derby in April.

Blinkers are off, jockey Rafael Bejarano is on, and Goldencents breaks from the outside in a field loaded with speed. Blinkers-off will be a late announcement and comes two starts after he added them.

Before returning to sprinting in the Bing Crosby, Goldencents was unplaced in the Kentucky Derby and Preakness.

“I had in my mind that going back to one turn against the country’s best sprinters that he might need blinkers,” O’Neill said. “Nine out of 10 times you put blinkers on, they break sharper.”

Last out, in the Pat O’Brien, Goldencents did not break sharply, however. Away slowly, he rushed into a duel, shook clear, opened up, but was collared.

“For him to hang on as well as he did was pretty impressive,” O’Neill said.

Pat Valenzuela rode Goldencents with the understanding it was a one-shot deal. Bejarano takes over Saturday after having worked Goldencents a bullet six furlongs in 1:11.40 on Sept. 27.

“We had Rafael come out and breeze him, and it was like poetry,” O’Neill said.

He was out of town, but O’Neill said his assistants “all just said, ‘Wow.’ ”

“Without blinkers, they all said he worked as good as he ever had,” O’Neill said.

The pace of the Sprint Championship should be swift. Trinniberg is quick, but winless in three starts since the 2012 BC Sprint.

Distinctiv Passion, the only entrant not Breeders’ Cup-nominated, has speed. So does Roman Threat.

Points Offthebench makes his first start since July 28, when he won the Bing Crosby. The 5-for-7 gelding is trained by Tim Yakteen, who is seeking his first Breeders’ Cup starter.

“He’s training great,” Yakteen said. “He should run a big race.”

The downside to Points Offthebench, from a Breeders’ Cup perspective, is that he prefers time between starts.

“He’s not a heavy-bodied horse, he’s a lighter-made horse, and he tucks up a little bit after his races,” Yakteen said.

Four weeks from the Sprint Championship to the Breeders’ Cup “would not be ideal,” Yakteen admitted.

Centralinteligence secured his BC Sprint berth with a Win and You’re In victory June 29 in the Triple Bend Handicap at Betfair Hollywood Park. The layoff since then was planned, and though the race Saturday is not a must-win, trainer Ron Ellis is bullish on Centralinteligence.

“I’m looking for a big race; he hasn’t missed any training,” Ellis said. “He’s been in training the whole time. I certainly want him to hit the board. Until his last race, I thought his best races were on dirt.”

Roman Threat misfired at Del Mar in his comeback, an effort trainer Bob Baffert attributes to layoff and surface.

“He hadn’t been out in a year,” Baffert said. “Here, he’s been really good.”