Take the One O One on favorite track in Cary Grant Stakes

DEL MAR, Calif. – After facing the likes of Improbable and Maximum Security at a distance beyond optimum in his last start, Take the One O One gets some class relief, cuts back in distance, and returns to his favorite track Sunday at Del Mar for the $100,000 Cary Grant Stakes. But it’s not an easy spot.

The Cary Grant, at seven furlongs for older horses, is restricted to California-breds, and this edition came up well above average. It includes likely favorite Galilean, a three-time stakes winner in statebred competition this year, as well as local stakes winner El Tigre Terrible and the speedy and improving Brickyard Ride.

Take the One O One got caught up in a hot pace duel last time out going 1 1/8 miles in the Grade 1 Awesome Again, in which he tired to finish fourth. It was a terrific performance under the circumstances, as Maximum Security was breathing down his neck throughout. He got a career-best Beyer Speed Figure of 94.

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Take the One O One – cleverly named by owner Samantha Siegel in a nod to his dam, North Freeway – has thrived over the years at Del Mar, where he is unbeaten in three starts on the main track, including a second-level allowance win this past summer going a mile. He hasn’t sprinted since July 2018, when he won the Real Good Deal here, and he earned his maiden win sprinting at Del Mar in the summer of 2017.

“He’s training really well now, probably the best he’s ever done,” his trainer, Brian Koriner, said Friday morning. “If he was outside I wouldn’t worry about a thing.”

Take the One O One landed post 3 in the field of 10, so he’ll have to work out a trip from there, but he’s done it before. He was in post 2 in a field of seven in the Real Good Deal, and started from the rail in a five-horse field when winning a first-level allowance at Santa Anita in March 2018.

What Koriner is hoping for is that enough speed materializes so the field gets separation, and Take the One O One and jockey Jose Valdivia Jr. “can sit a trip behind,” Koriner said, while avoiding getting stuck inside, eating dirt.

Galilean landed post 8 as he goes for his fourth win in his last five starts. Effective on turf and dirt, sprinting and at middle distances, he most recently won the California Flag for statebred turf sprinters at Santa Anita. This will be his first start on Del Mar’s main track.

Brickyard Ride and Better Trip Nick figure to carve out a sharp pace. That could be beneficial to El Tigre Terrible, who won the Real Good Deal for statebreds here during the summer meet going seven furlongs, giving him a record of three wins in four starts on the Del Mar main track. He’s a 3-year-old facing elders, and was fifth of seven in his first try against older in the Grade 2 Eddie D for turf sprinters at Santa Anita. Flavien Prat rides for the fourth straight time.

The Cary Grant is race 8 on a nine-race card that begins at 12:30 p.m. Pacific.