Top of the Game heads Native Diver possibles
RACE REPLAY IS NOT AVAILABLE
DEL MAR, Calif. – Top of the Game, who returned from an eight-month layoff to score a runaway victory in the Comma to the Top Stakes last month over Hoppertunity, heads the likely field for the Grade 3, $100,000 Native Diver Stakes on Nov. 25.
The Native Diver, at 1 1/16 miles, is the lone dirt stakes of the eight stakes to be run the final week of the Del Mar meet, and could have the smallest field, with Seattle Serenade and just a handful of others likely to run.
The globe-trotting Mubtaahij, eighth in the Breeders’ Cup Classic on Nov. 4, worked five furlongs in 1:00.20 on Thursday at Santa Anita, but on Friday trainer Bob Baffert said he “hadn’t made up his mind yet” as to whether Mubtaahij would be wheeled back in the Native Diver.
In March, Mubtaahij finished fourth in the Dubai World Cup.
It Tiz Well may run in Bayakoa
A minor foot issue kept It Tiz Well out of the Breeders’ Cup Distaff earlier this month, but she worked Thursday at Santa Anita and could return as soon as the Grade 2, $200,000 Bayakoa Stakes at Los Alamitos on Dec. 3, trainer Jerry Hollendorfer said Friday.
“She’s coming along good,” Hollendorfer said. “She had bruising on the frogs of both feet. We backed off, but she stayed in training.”
It Tiz Well worked six furlongs in 1:15 at Santa Anita on Oct. 25, and days later Hollendorfer declared her out of the Distaff. She went a half-mile in 48.80 seconds Thursday. She’d have time for two more works before the 1 1/16-mile Bayakoa.
It Tiz Well, 3, won the Cotillion Stakes at Parx in her last start, beating likely 3-year-old filly champion Abel Tasman. She also was second in the Alabama Stakes at Saratoga.
Masochistic back on work tab
The top sprinter Masochistic returned to the work tab for his new trainer, Bob Baffert, on Friday morning at Santa Anita and zipped a half-mile in 47 seconds, the best time of 36 at the distance.
Masochistic, 7, has not raced since May, when he finished 13th of 14 in the Churchill Downs Stakes in only his second start of the year. He was then transferred by his owners, Will Shamlian and Samantha Siegel, to Baffert from Ron Ellis.
Masochistic finished second in the 2016 Breeders’ Cup Sprint, but subsequently was disqualified after testing positive for steroids. The Breeders’ Cup, by rule, then barred both Masochistic and Ellis from competing in this year’s event at Del Mar.
