Truly Quality faces cutback question in San Marcos

ARCADIA, Calif. – The three main contenders in the Grade 3 San Marcos Stakes face challenges beyond a potentially wet turf course Saturday at Santa Anita.

Truly Quality, a streaking Grade 2 winner, wants longer than 1 1/4 miles. Easter, a multiple Grade 2 winner, typically runs shorter. Then there is Divin Propos, off the board in both of his graded stakes tries, who is repeatedly undervalued and possibly overrated.

Add uncertain course condition from rain, and the San Marcos might be more open than it looks. In addition to 8-5 morning-line favorite Truly Quality, Easter, and Divin Propos, five others are entered. Those are graded winners There Goes Harvard, Dicey Mo Chara, and Atitlan; stakes winner Lord Bullingdon; and stakes-placed Nineeleventurbo.

Truly Quality is the right favorite at the wrong distance. Three consecutive stakes wins include a career-best last out in the 1 1/2-mile Grade 2 Hollywood Turf Cup at Del Mar. The issue Saturday is whether Truly Quality can be as effective shortening from three turns to two.

:: Access morning workout reports straight from the tracks and get an edge with DRF Clocker Reports

“I’m a little concerned about cutting him back,” trainer Jonathan Thomas acknowledged. “Unfortunately, there aren’t many options. With the [deep-closing] style that he’s developed over the last couple races, I am concerned about not having enough ground in front of him late.”

Truly Quality was eight starts into his career and stuck at the first condition when the light bulb went on last summer. Thomas stretched him to marathon distances, and Truly Quality went on a tear. The 5-year-old gelding has won four of his last five, all at 1 3/8 miles or farther.

The current class of the field, Truly Quality will be ridden by Vincent Cheminaud and trying to become the fifth favorite in the last eight years to win the San Marcos. But the distance cutback makes him vulnerable.

Conversely, Easter will stretch a furlong from 1 1/8 miles. It’s a move trainer Phil D’Amato considered even before his last-out fourth in the Grade 2 San Gabriel. “He always gallops out 10 [lengths] in front of everyone going [shorter],” D’Amato said. He believes the slower pace of the longer race will allow jockey Antono Fresu to position him closer to the front.

“He likes to fight, he likes that competition,” D’Amato said. “A longer distance, slower pace, should put him in that scenario.”

Easter, a 7-year-old gelding, once was good enough. He won back-to-back Grade 2 races in late 2023, but is winless since.

D’Amato also entered Divin Propos, whose fifth-place finish in the Hollywood Turf Cup was a nightmare. He was blocked full of run through the far turn and into the lane, with nowhere to go. It was the first time Umberto Rispoli rode Divin Propos but he has been aboard the gelding in workouts since.

“Umberto’s been breezing him, getting to know him better,” D’Amato said. Divin Propos is due for luck. He was pace-compromised two starts back when he was rank and unsettled. Though he is often overbet – favored in four of five U.S. starts – Divin Propos is the most probable winner of the San Marcos and is listed as the 3-1 second choice on the morning line.

:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.