Turf sprint draws salty group

DEL MAR, Calif. – The I’m Smokin Stakes may be the richest race on the card Friday, but the best race might be race 7, a $67,000 allowance that attracted a high-class group of female sprinters going five furlongs on turf. The field includes Snow Cloud, a two-time winner on the course this meet, and the multiple stakes winner Pretty N Cool, who makes her first start on turf.

“What a tough race that is,” said trainer Jim Cassidy, whose banner Del Mar meeting has included a pair of victories by Snow Cloud. “If that’s not a stake, I don’t know what is.”

Snow Cloud was a 41-1 upset winner against a first-level allowance field July 31 and was 4-1 when beating a second-level field Aug. 17. With no turf sprints on this circuit from Del Mar’s closing next Monday until Santa Anita opens Sept. 30, in-form turf sprinters need to run – now.

Pretty N Cool was fourth in the Grade 3 Rancho Bernardo Handicap on Aug. 17. She has not raced at five furlongs since her debut win on a sloppy main track here in July 2015.

“I just entered her at the last minute,” said trainer Bob Baffert. “She’s bred for it. Those Scat Daddys like the turf.”

The field also includes Desert Steel, a three-time winner on this course who had a nightmarish trip in her comeback race Aug. 5, and Paquita Coqueta, a Chilean import who won a Group 2 stakes and 11 other races in 23 starts in her native land. This is her first start in this country.

“She ran a lot of times in Chile,” said trainer Richard Mandella. “I think she likes to run short on turf. She’s actually eligible to one lower allowance condition, but this is all they had.

“I didn’t want to miss the Del Mar meet because of Ship and Win,” Mandella said, referring to a program that pays a 30 percent bonus to horses who are brought to this circuit from elsewhere and win first time out at Del Mar.