Surfing Star can take another step forward in allowance

ARCADIA, Calif. – Surfing Star was such an impressive winner in two allowance races with claiming options at Santa Anita last fall that assistant trainer Karen Headley is convinced her family has a stakes horse in the making.

Headley assists her father, Bruce, the official trainer of Surfing Star. A 4-year-old colt, Surfing Star will have his 2019 debut in Sunday’s eighth race at Santa Anita, an allowance race with a $62,500 claiming option at 1 1/16 miles. The optional claimer will be the longest race in Surfing Star’s brief career, which includes three wins in five starts, all last year.

“He can go as far as you want,” Karen Headley said Friday.

The optional claimer is part of a nine-race program that begins at 11 a.m. Weather could play a role in track conditions. Rain is expected Sunday.

KEY CONTENDERS

Surfing Star
Last 3 Beyers: 96-95-73

◗ Surfing Star won a first-condition allowance race with a $16,000 claiming option at a mile for California-breds by 3 1/2 lengths on Oct. 14, followed by a win in a first-condition allowance race with a $40,000 claiming option at a mile against open company by 5 1/2 lengths on Nov. 4.

Those were his first races around two turns.

◗ Surfing Star dueled for the lead in those races, but won his debut in a six-furlong maiden special weight race for California-breds last March from off the pace. Joel Rosario has the mount for the first time Sunday.

“He can sit wherever he wants him to without too much pressure,” Karen Headley said of Rosario’s possible tactics. “A lot of the riders tell me they haven’t gotten to the bottom of him.”

◗ Bruce Headley bred Surfing Star with Old English Rancho and owns the colt in partnership with Nancy Barnhart, Roxana Foxx, and Marsha Naify.

Popular Kid, by Popular
Last 3 Beyers: 95-89-81

◗ Popular Kid is a threat from off the pace under jockey Kent Desormeaux. Trained by Jerry Hollendorfer, Popular Kid won an allowance race at 1 1/16 miles on Jan. 5, closing from sixth in a field of nine.

◗ The allowance race was Popular Kid’s third win in his last four starts. He won an allowance race with a $20,000 claiming option at Del Mar last August and a $32,000 claimer at Santa Anita in October, the day he was taken by Hollendorfer.

Popular Kid has been claimed six times in the last year.

Nero, by Pioneerof the Nile
Last 3 Beyers: 92-82-93

◗ Sunday’s race will be the first start around two turns for the speedy Nero, who has won 2 of 5 starts and was seventh in the Grade 1 Malibu Stakes at seven furlongs for 3-year-olds here Dec. 26.

◗ Trained by Bob Baffert, Nero was purchased for $950,000 at a yearling sale in 2016. Nero won a maiden special weight race at 5 1/2 furlongs in January 2018 and an optional claimer at 6 1/2 furlongs at Del Mar last November.