Straighten Up begins campaign against statebreds
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Straighten Up won his career debut at Los Alamitos last July, part of a limited four-race campaign highlighted by two second-place finishes in stakes for statebred juvenile sprinters at Del Mar.
On Sunday, Straighten Up is back at Los Alamitos for the start of his 3-year-old season in an allowance race for statebreds at 5 1/2 furlongs. The abbreviated distance ideally fits Straighten Up who may not want more than a six-furlong race, according to trainer Mike Puype.
“He’s a five-and-a-half and at best six,” Puype said of the ideal furlongs for Straighten Up.
Owned by Kevin Nish, Straighten Up has been gelded since his last start, a sixth-place finish in the Speakeasy Stakes at five furlongs on turf at Santa Anita last October.
“It’s a place to start for him,” Puype said of Sunday’s race. “The distance fits him. He’s gelded. He’s fast.”
Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith rode Straighten Up in his four starts in 2022. Smith rides Straighten Up on Sunday, his only mount on the 10-race program.
Sunday is the final day of the Los Angeles County Fair meeting at Los Alamitos. There is no afternoon Thoroughbred racing in Southern California next weekend. Del Mar begins its popular eight-week summer meeting on July 21.
Straighten Up will be near the front, and may lead depending on how aggressively he is ridden in a race that includes the equally speedy colt Cowboy Charlie. Unraced since December, the 4-year-old Cowboy Charlie has won 4 of 12 starts, setting the pace in each victory.
Pupye said he would not be opposed if Straighten Up stalked Cowboy Charlie, provided the gelding will cooperate with Smith.
“We’ll figure it out,” Puype said. “It will be up to Mike. Our horse is very fast, too.
“The horse is very live.”
Cowboy Charlie and Straighten Up are part of a field of six. A zooming pace will help the stalker Devil Among Us, a 3-year-old who has been gelded since he finished seventh after a troubled trip in an allowance race for statebreds on turf on May 13 at Santa Anita. Devil Among Us has worked quickly in recent weeks at Santa Anita for trainer Phil D’Amato.
Earlier on Sunday’s program, Prince of Monaco, purchased for $950,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga sale last August, has his career debut against four rivals in a maiden race for 2-year-olds at five furlongs. All five runners are first-time starters.
Trained by Bob Baffert, Prince of Monaco will be favored on the basis of a series of fast workouts at Santa Anita in the last month. Prince of Monaco, by Speightstown, worked a half-mile from the gate in 46.20 seconds on June 23.
Trainer Doug O’Neill starts Masters Sunday, a colt by Vino Rosso who is a half-brother to Dance With Fate, winner of the Grade 1 Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland and the sixth-place finisher behind California Chrome in the Kentucky Derby in 2014.
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