Santa Rosa: Anytime Magic streaks into Cavonnier Juvenile

Anytime Magic will have only four challengers when he seeks his third straight stakes win in Sunday’s $75,000 Cavonnier Juvenile at the Sonoma County Fair in Santa Rosa.

One of the challengers is Native Treasure, who finished second to him in the Lost in the Fog at Golden Gate Fields and the Everett Nevin-Alameda County Futurity at Pleasanton.

After that come three question marks.

Zeewat won his debut here by seven lengths as the odds-on favorite in a July 27 maiden race.

My Best Bet, a private purchase by trainer Billy Morey, scored a four-length debut win in a $25,000 maiden claimer at Calder on June 23.

Condiment, a homebred with local connections, will be making his debut.

Trainer Bob Hess said he is more concerned about Anytime Magic than about the competition. And he doesn’t have many concerns going into the six-furlong race.

Hess said he was a bit surprised when Anytime Magic pulled clear in the lane to win his debut, but he wasn’t surprised when Anytime Magic went wire to wire in his next start to win easily at Pleasanton.

“I was impressed by the way the horse ran the second time,” Hess said. “Sometimes horses win their debuts and don’t improve, but he showed improvement.”

The margin of victory was 2 1/2 lengths over Native Treasure. He won his debut by 2 1/4. What made the victory all the more impressive was that Native Treasure got a clean trip in the Everett Nevin after a troubled try in the Lost in the Fog.

A $30,000 Fusaichi Pegasus gelding, Anytime Magic has four works since his last start, including an easy six-furlong drill. He sharpened his speed with a three-furlong bullet blowout Thursday.

My Best Bet is the most recent 2-year-old purchase by Morey, who struck gold two years ago with multiple-stakes-winning Positive Response.

“This is the best time of year to own a nice 2-year-old in Northern California,” he said, pointing to the series of stakes offered at Golden Gate Fields leading up to the El Camino Real Derby.

My Best Bet was bumped at the break but still won easily in his debut. The field was spread out, often the sign of a good effort, and the runner-up that day came back to win his next start.

“He won very impressively,” Morey said of the Best of the Rest ridgling. “The key was the way he did it. He finished in a nice way.”

Morey had My Best Bet shipped to Del Mar in hopes of running in a stakes there but decided to run in the Cavonnier instead.

“He’s trained well, and he’s very fit,” Morey said.