Trainer D'Amato having great spring on the turf

ARCADIA, Calif. - Not that he had a rough winter, but trainer Phil D’Amato’s stable has been particularly productive this spring.

Across the nation on Saturday, D’Amato won two turf sprint stakes with Beer Can Man in the Jim McKay Turf Sprint at Pimlico, and the Mizdirection Stakes with Elm Drive for fillies and mares at Santa Anita. On Sunday, D’Amato’s Conclude won the Desert Code Stakes for 3-year-old turf sprinters in what could be a prep for the $100,000 Oceanside Stakes at Del Mar on July 21.

On the weekend of April 29-30, D’Amato won five turf stakes at Golden Gate Fields and Santa Anita.

Through Saturday, D’Amato had 17 stakes wins this year – 13 on turf and four on dirt. Two of the four dirt wins were races scheduled for turf but moved to the main track.

Elm Drive is effective on both surfaces. She won the Grade 3 Monrovia Stakes at 6 1/2 furlongs on dirt on April 8 in a race originally scheduled for turf, and the Mizdirection Stakes on the hillside turf course in her first career start on grass.

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Prior to Saturday, Elm Drive was rated as a candidate for the Grade 2 Great Lady M Stakes at 6 1/2 furlongs at Los Alamitos on July 4.

“We could alter course with the way she ran yesterday,” D’Amato said on Sunday.

A four-time stakes winner, Elm Drive is owned by the Little Red Feather Racing partnership, who had two stakes wins at Pimlico on Saturday. The syndicate is a co-owner of Beer Can Man and Nagirroc, who won the James Murphy Stakes for turf milers. Nagirroc is trained by Graham Motion.

D’Amato’s stakes bounty could increase through Memorial Day weekend. As of Sunday, he planned to have runners in as many as four of the eight races at Santa Anita on May 28-29.

Carole Lombard, winner of the Campanile Stakes for statebred 3-year-old fillies on turf at Golden Gate Fields on April 30, will be part of a small field in the $150,000 Melair Stakes for statebred 3-year-old fillies at 1 1/16 miles on dirt on May 28. On the same day, Tom and Jazzy may run in the $150,000 Snow Chief Stakes for statebred 3-year-olds at 1 1/8 miles on turf.

The stable’s main focus on the holiday weekend are the two Grade 1 turf races on Memorial Day – the $500,000 Shoemaker Mile and the $400,000 Gamely Stakes for fillies and mares at 1 1/8 miles.

D’Amato plans to run Balnikhov, Gold Phoenix and Hong Kong Harry in the Shoemaker Mile, a race also expected to include Cabo Spirit, Du Jour, Exaulted and the French import Salesman.

Hong Kong Harry was second in the Grade 1 Old Forester Turf Classic at 1 1/8 miles at Churchill Downs on May 6. The winner of the Shoemaker Mile receives a fees-paid berth to the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Santa Anita on Nov. 4.

The stable will start the graded stakes winners Macadamia, Rhea Moon and School Dance against Bellamore, Quatroelle, Queen Goddess and Viareggio.

Rhea Moon was scratched from the Grade 3 Wilshire Stakes at Santa Anita on April 30 after she sustained a cut on a leg on race morning. Macadamia won the race.

D’Amato said on Sunday that Rhea Moon will be ready for the Gamely Stakes, which will be her first start in a Grade 1 race since a win in the American Oaks on Dec. 26. After recovering from the cut, Rhea Moon worked five furlongs on the Santa Anita infield training track in 1:02.20 on May 15.

“The time didn’t do her justice,” D’Amato said. “It was a good gallop out.”

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