Sharp Samurai to make seasonal bow in Shoemaker Mile

ARCADIA, Calif. – Sharp Samurai, a five-time stakes winner who was withdrawn from the Breeders’ Cup Mile last fall because of illness, is scheduled to have his 2019 debut in the Grade 1 Shoemaker Mile at Santa Anita on May 27.

Sharp Samurai, who worked six furlongs in 1:14.40 on Wednesday, has not raced since winning the Grade 2 City of Hope Mile on turf at Santa Anita last October.

“We’ve settled into having him ready for the second half of the year,” trainer Mark Glatt said on Thursday.

Glatt said Sharp Samurai was given a lengthy rest last fall to recover from illness, which he described as a “slow process.” The illness was detected after pre-entries were completed for the BC Mile.

“By the time he got over the throat infection, when I could have done more with him, was when the rainfall came,” Glatt said. “We were careful through that time period, which was lengthy this year.

“We took our time.”

The goal this year is a start in the BC Mile at Santa Anita on Nov. 2.

The $500,000 Shoemaker Mile is part of the Breeders’ Cup Win and You’re In program, offering a fees-paid berth to the BC Mile for nominated runners. The Shoemaker Mile is expected to draw a strong field, including Ohio, who won the Grade 1 Frank Kilroe Mile here on March 30, and Catapult, second in the 2018 BC Mile at Churchill Downs and the Kilroe Mile.

Owned by Red Baron’s Barn, Rancho Temescal and Glatt, Sharp Samurai, a 5-year-old gelding by First Samurai, has won 8 of 14 starts and earned $735,270. The City of Hope Mile was his only stakes win in 2018. As a 3-year-old in 2017, Sharp Samurai won four consecutive stakes, including the Grade 2 Twilight Derby here that October.

Glatt is planning to run Law Abidin Citizen in the Grade 2 Triple Bend Stakes at seven furlongs on May 25. A start in the Grade 1 Churchill Downs Stakes on May 2 was considered.

“The race came up way too tough," Glatt said. “He runs well fresh. He likes time between the races.”

Law Abidin Citizen won the Grade 3 San Simeon Stakes on the hillside turf course on March 31 for his first stakes win.

Last month, Glatt considered sending a small group of horses to Churchill Downs for the track’s spring-summer meeting, but has decided not to. He said Santa Anita’s decision to raise overnight purses $10,000 per race through June 2 was a leading factor in advising his clients to remain in California.

“I said, ‘They’re trying to show some stability,’” he said. “Everyone settled into that idea. The purse increase kept me from having moving some horses back there.”