Tranche squares off with Baffert's speedy pair in Best Pal
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The gap is glaring.
Since he won the Fasig-Tipton Futurity on June 17 at Santa Anita, Tranche has had one workout, going a half-mile in a quick 47.60 seconds on Wednesday at Del Mar.
At a glance, one workout between stakes spread eight weeks apart would seem insufficient for Tranche to win Sunday’s Grade 3 Best Pal Stakes for 2-year-olds at six furlongs at Del Mar.
Trainer Luis Mendez insists Tranche will be ready for the $200,000 Best Pal Stakes and a first-ever meeting with the exciting maiden race winners Muth and Prince of Monaco, both trained by Bob Baffert.
“He’s been training,” Mendez said. “I never stopped on him.
“I’ve been doing a lot to get a lot of air in him. He’s got the speed already.”
The Best Pal Stakes is the fourth race on a 10-race program. The 20-cent Rainbow pick six begins with the fifth race and has a mandatory payout on Sunday and is expected to draw a multi-million dollar pool.
Tranche, owned by Bill Peeples, won for the first time in his third start in the Fasig-Tipton Futurity at five furlongs. The colt was seventh in his debut in a maiden race at Keeneland in April and a well-beaten third behind the filly Youalmosthadme in the Kentucky Juvenile Stakes on May 4 at Churchill Downs.
Mendez notes that Tranche had two workouts between the Kentucky Juvenile and the Fasig-Tipton Juvenile at Santa Anita.
“I’ve been doing about the same thing,” he said of his current training approach.
Jockey Edwin Maldonado rode Tranche in the Fasig-Tipton Juvenile and has the mount on Sunday. Maldonado worked Tranche on Wednesday.
“Edwin was really happy,” Mendez said. “That got me more confident. It’s not just me that likes him.”
Tranche will be part of what is likely to be an intense pace in the Best Pal, even though the race has only five entrants.
“I think he’s going to take the lead,” Mendez said.
If so, Tranche must outrun race favorite Muth, who was outstanding on June 18, leading throughout a five-furlong race. Purchased for $2 million in March, Muth pulled clear to win by 8 3/4 lengths under jockey Juan Hernandez, who has the mount Sunday.
Of the two Baffert-trained runners, Muth set a faster pace in his maiden race win than Prince of Monaco. Muth was clocked in 21.60 seconds for his first quarter-mile, while Prince of Monaco was timed in 22.20 when disputing the pace in a maiden race at Los Alamitos in his only start July 9.
Prince of Monaco, sent off at 1-20 in a four-horse field, pulled clear to win by eight lengths under Hernandez. For the Best Pal, Prince of Monaco will be ridden by Flavien Prat, a former leading rider in Southern California who is currently based at Saratoga.
The outsiders Raging Torrent, winner of a maiden race July 23 at Del Mar in his lone start, and Who Is Pavel, fifth in his only start in a maiden race July 30, are the other entrants.
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