Trip Notes: CashCall Futurity replay

Saturday, Dec. 17

Hollywood CashCall Futurity (race 9)

Liaison backed up his game Real Quiet win with another courageous tally here over the same foe, and while the margin isn’t all that big, he still stamps himself one of the leaders of the West Coast 2-year-old male set, along with the resting Creative Cause. A son of Indian Charlie, who passed away this past week, Liaison is now 3 for 4. He showed enough speed to be just a couple of lengths off the lead in fifth while saving ground on the rail, waited for room on the far turn, found a seam into the lane, burst through nicely to take control into the lane, and stayed on doggedly to keep the hard-charging Rousing Sermon at bay in the final yards. This gave trainer Bob Baffert a sixth win in this race. Rousing Sermon, a rallying second to Liaison in the Real Quiet, was well back early, had to go wide, circled the field, and finished full of run but just couldn’t get to the winner. He certainly looks like the real deal, though. Brother Francis sat back, came with a strong threatening run into the lane to briefly look scary, but couldn’t sustain his rally, finishing third. His jock did lose his whip in midstretch. Sky Kingdom, another Baffert runner who was coming off a big maiden win, was far back early and finished well. Blingo, a big debut winner on turf, was last early, still far back turning for home, but finished full of run though it was too late to make a dent. His rally still stamped him one to watch, though he may be better on turf. Drill dueled up front early with Handsome Mike but gave way. He apparently doesn’t want to go this far, at least at this stage of the game. Majestic, the tepid favorite, also pressed the pace while on the outside but gave way. He doesn’t appear to want this much ground as well.