Sunday maiden race could produce stakes runners

DEL MAR, Calif. – A maiden race for 2-year-olds going long on the turf on Sunday at Del Mar might produce horses who could come back by closing day Dec. 1 in the Grade 3, $100,000 Cecil B. DeMille Stakes.

Both the maiden race and the DeMille are at a mile. Four of the 11 horses in the maiden race, the last of nine races on the card, are making their debuts, and several who have run have shown promise, but the one who is likely to attract the most attention is newcomer Royal Act, an American Pharoah colt who has been held in high regard for months.

Royal Act, a $500,000 yearling buy by the CRK Stable of Lee and Susan Searing, has turned in a series of sharp drills for his debut for trainer Peter Eurton, whose Storm the Court won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Santa Anita earlier this month. Royal Act landed the outside post, and Rafael Bejarano has the mount.

Runners trained by Neil Drysdale (Capital Call), David Hofmans (Don V.), and Vann Belvoir (I’m Leaving You) are also debuting in the race, and Leonard Powell has an intriguing import in Frasard, twice second in Great Britain earlier this year.

Of those who have run on this circuit, Goalie appears the most promising. By Bodemeister, he is a three-quarter brother to the Grade 1 turf stakes winner Midnight Storm, and he now stretches out following a lone start in which he got off poorly and then flew home to be second going 5 1/2 furlongs on turf at Santa Anita.

“He’s a horse with a lot of talent,” his trainer, Phil D’Amato, said at his Del Mar barn Friday morning. “I think he’s going to get better with racing. The lightbulb is slowly going on. I think he wants to go longer. This is a nice progression.”