Stakes-quality allowance field will test Award Winner

Award Winner was withdrawn from the Grade 3 Thunder Road Stakes at Santa Anita on Feb. 6 for a start in an allowance race at a mile on turf on Saturday.

In theory, the allowance race should be an easier spot, but it has drawn a fascinating field filled with stakes horses.

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Award Winner, second in the Grade 3 Kent Stakes at Delaware Park in 2019, is part of a field of 11 that includes the stakes winners Encoder, Indian Peak, and Restiany, and the stakes-placed runners Heywoods Beach, Scarto and Taishan. The recent allowance race winners Goalie and Mind the Gap give the field additional depth.

Award Winner, owned by Amerman Racing, was second in an allowance race at a mile on turf in his California debut on Jan. 8, his first start since being transferred from trainer Brian Lynch to David Hofmans. A 5-year-old gelding, Award Winner set the pace and finished a half-length behind Border Town, who finished third in the Thunder Road Stakes.

“Border Town came back and ran respectable in the stakes,” Hofmans said. “That gives us some hope.”

Award Winner, who will be ridden by Abel Cedillo, is likely to set the pace.

“Tactically, it looks like the same race,” Hofmans said.

Award Winner will break from post 7, with two of the leading contenders in Scarto and Taishan drawn widest.

“Those two outside horses look pretty tough,” Hofmans said.

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Scarto and Taishan were sixth and ninth in the Grade 1 Hollywood Derby at 1 1/8 miles on turf at Del Mar on Nov. 28. Scarto finished fifth in the Grade 2 Mathis Brothers Mile on turf at Santa Anita on Dec. 26.

Trainer Mike Puype is optimistic about Scarto’s chances to end a three-race losing streak, despite the post position. Umberto Rispoli will ride Scarto.

“He’s come out of the stakes good, but it’s an awful post,” he said. “That’s the only negative. We’ve got a good rider and we’ll leave it up to him.”

Taishan, who will be ridden by Joel Rosario, was second in the Grade 2 American Turf Stakes at Churchill Downs on Sept. 5 and later seventh, beaten 1 1/2 lengths in the Bryan Station Stakes at 1 1/8 miles at Keeneland in October.

Saturday’s allowance race is the American debut of Restiany, a 4-year-old colt by Frankel now trained by John Sadler. Restiany won a minor stakes at Saint-Cloud Racecourse in Paris last June, and finished a troubled 10th in an allowance race at that venue in November in his final start in France.