Tiger Dad wheels right back off top-fig effort

ARCADIA, Calif. – Is Tiger Dad simply the best horse in the featured sixth race Friday at Santa Anita, and a short turnaround will not matter? Or is 13 days between starts too quick back?

Glass half-full, or half-empty?

Third-place finisher last out in an allowance against older, Tiger Dad is favored Friday dropping into a turf allowance restricted to 3-year-olds. Five and one-half furlongs is a perfect distance, and he also benefits from an outside post and minor equipment revision.

However, trainer Carla Gaines acknowledges that the timing for Tiger Dad is not ideal. He will wheel back less than two weeks after earning a career-best Beyer Speed Figure.

“I don’t know if I’m doing the right thing. I’m sort of pushing it because it’s a straight 3-year-old race,” she said. “But he came out of the race jumping and bucking.”

Tiger Dad drew the outside post in the field of seven, and if he reproduces his last start, he will be tough. If not, Seven Scents could upset. Other contenders include Carnivorous and City Rage. The outsiders are Tap the Wire, You Must Chill, and One Flew South.

Sometimes the condition book is a trainer’s friend, other times not so much. In the case of Tiger Dad, Gaines preferred more time between races.

“It was a bit frustrating that I ran against older horses, and then the new book comes out, and they have a straight 3-year-old race.

If she had known the 3-year-old race was to be offered, Gaines said, “I would have waited.

Tiger Dad received pressure from the outside every step last out. He battled to deep stretch and tired. “He was never really settled in the race because there was a horse outside him,” Gaines said. She will cut back on his blinker – “less of a blinker” – in hopes he settles Friday. With no one to his outside, that could happen

The Santa Anita turf course has been kind to speed at 5 1/2 furlongs; five of the last eight winners set the pace. Tiger Dad is a front-runner.

Seven Scents might be worth a gamble. He set a blistering pace last time at one mile, tired late, and now cuts back to a sprint. He also drops from an allowance for nonwinners of a turf stakes this year, into a nonwinners-of one-allowance/optional claimer. Seven Scents has won sprinting.

Carnivorous, the only four-time winner in the field, drops from the same race as Seven Scents. Both entered for the optional $80,000 claim tag.