Spring Favorite seek fourth straight in James Smith Memorial

Spring Favorite changed late last fall.

After losing his first three races from September to early November, Spring Favorite won a 300-yard maiden race on Dec. 1 at Los Alamitos and followed with wins in two allowance races earlier this year.

The three-race winning streak has led to Spring Favorite’s stakes debut in Sunday’s $20,000 James Smith Memorial Handicap at 350 yards.

The Smith Handicap will be the first start at 350 yards for Spring Favorite, who has raced at 300 and 330 yards.

“I think he’s a 400-yard horse,” trainer Paul Jones said Friday morning. “I think the extra distance will help him.”

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Owned by Donald and Peggy Boyle, who bred the gelding, Spring Favorite is part of a field of seven in the Smith Handicap, the last of eight races Sunday. First post time is 8 p.m. Eastern. Wagering is available through DRFBets.com.

The Smith Handicap will be the Los Alamitos debut for Brockmire, a minor stakes winner at Turf Paradise at 300 yards on Jan. 26 for trainer Matt Fales.

Others in the field have started in more lucrative races in the last several months, without success.

Up and Coming was a troubled eighth in the $355,000 Pacific Coast Quarter Horse Racing Association Breeders’ Futurity last October and ninth of 10 in the $1.9 million Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity in December after breaking through the gate before the start.

More recently, Up and Coming was fifth in a division of the Los Alamitos Winter Derby trials on Jan. 27, bumping with rivals at the start.

Earlier on Sunday’s program, the first maiden special weight race for 2-year-olds of 2020 at Los Alamitos will be run at 300 yards. Fly the Coup, purchased for $250,000 at the Ruidoso yearling sale last September, is part of a field of seven. Fly the Coup was the most expensive colt of that sale.

Trained by Jones, Fly the Coup has yet to impress his trainer in two required gate workouts at 220 yards.

“I’d like to see a little more for the $250,000,” Jones said. “I think he’s a little slow maturing and he needs to go farther than 220 yards.

“He showed a little bit of talent. He hasn’t been the star of the barn yet. I guess they can change in a race.”

The field includes SC Divas Cartel Man, a gelding out of the mare Spit Curl Diva, who was a multiple stakes winner.