Sharp Lorenzo stretches out as favorite in Luke Kruytbosch Stakes

PHOENIX – Sharp Lorenzo looms an overwhelming favorite in Thursday’s $60,000 Luke Kruytbosch Stakes at Turf Paradise. The Southern California shipper heads a field of eight 3-year-olds going a mile on the main track in a race named for the one-time track announcer who passed away in 2008.

Owned by Jeremy Ramsland and trained by Lorenzo Campuzano, Sharp Lorenzo is a gelded son of Sharp Azteca. He is coming off a game optional-claiming win at Santa Anita on Feb. 2. All his work so far has been sprinting, so Thursday’s added ground is a new wrinkle.

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Ferrari Red, owned by Wendy Hickey and O.A. Martinez Jr., and trained by Martinez, is another shipper. The gelded son of Cinco Charlie won his first two starts, including a stakes, at Arapahoe Park last summer. He was then second in another stakes there Sept. 10. This marks his first start since he dueled and faded to sixth in a sprint stakes at the Downs in Albuquerque on Oct. 14.

General Crook ran third in a route stakes at Emerald last summer and makes his first start since finishing sixth in a sprint stakes at Zia Park onNov. 28. Lite Ranchin Kid romped in his first two starts, both sprints last summer at Arapahoe, including a stakes, before finishing fifth and third in a pair of sprint stakes in New Mexico in the fall.

The Kruytbosch is carded as race 5.

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