Say the Word will be supplemented to Shoemaker Mile

The Grade 1 Shoemaker Mile at Santa Anita on Monday will have a late and much-needed addition to the field with the supplemental entry of the multiple stakes winner Say the Word.

Trainer Phil D’Amato said Wednesday that several factors have led to the decision to pay the $4,000 supplemental fee when entries are taken on Friday.

“I thought small field, sharp horse, and Win and You’re In,” he said. “I can get Flavien Prat. All those were pros. All that makes it worth a shot.”

The winner of the $300,000 Shoemaker Mile receives a fees-paid berth to the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Del Mar on Nov. 6. Prat is the leading rider at the winter-spring meeting.

The other option for Say the Word was the Grade 1 Manhattan Stakes at 1 1/4 miles at Belmont Park on June 5.

“The distance probably fits him better at Belmont,” D’Amato said. “It’s no easy race there.”

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The Shoemaker Mile will have few runners, a recent trend in stakes at Santa Anita which will continue during the holiday weekend.

Other contenders for the Shoemaker Mile are Smooth Like Strait, a multiple stakes winner who was third in the Grade 1 Old Forester Turf Classic at Churchill Downs on May 1, and Whisper Not and Restrainedvengence, who were first and third in the Grade 3 San Francisco Mile at Golden Gate Fields on April 24.

Through Sunday, D’Amato had 14 stakes wins at the meeting, one fewer than leader Bob Baffert. D’Amato could retake the lead in that category in coming days.

Saturday, the stable runs Acclimate and Red King against top local turf horse United in the Grade 2 Charles Whittingham Stakes at 1 1/4 miles on turf. Charmaine’s Mia and possibly Raymundo’s Secret will start for D’Amato in the Grade 1 Gamely Stakes at 1 1/8 miles on turf for fillies and mares here on Monday.

Gregorian Chant, the winner of three consecutive turf sprints at Santa Anita this year, is scheduled to start in the Grade 1 Jaipur Stakes at six furlongs on turf at Belmont Park on June 5.

Count Again, fourth in the Old Forester Turf Classic, could return to Churchill Downs for the Grade 2 Wise Dan Stakes at 1 1/16 miles on turf on June 26.

– additional reporting by Brad Free