Two-time Shoemaker Mile winner Obviously sits this one out

ARCADIA, Calif. – There are several absences among local horses for Saturday’s $400,000 Shoemaker Mile at Santa Anita, notably Obviously, the gelding who won the race in 2013 and 2014.

Trainer Phil D’Amato said on Thursday that he considered starting Obviously in the Grade 1 Shoemaker, but the aging runner is more likely for graded stakes at Belmont Park or Churchill Downs this month.

“He’s an 8-year-old gelding and has won his Grade 1,” D’Amato said. “We’re looking for the best opportunity to make money.”

Owned by Anthony Fanticola and Joe Scardino, Obviously has won 11 of 26 starts and earned $1,567,751. He has won seven stakes since the summer of 2012.

Obviously tends to race near the front, a strategy that may not have worked in his favor in Saturday’s Shoemaker. D’Amato has the two-time stakes winner Midnight Storm for the race, a horse who races near the lead. Heart to Heart, a two-time stakes winner at Gulfstream Park this year, is a confirmed front-runner.

Obviously could run in one of two $300,000 turf races at Belmont Park soon – the Grade 3 Jaipur Invitational at six furlongs on June 11 or the Grade 3 Poker Stakes at a mile on June 18. Another consideration is the $200,000 Wise Dan Stakes at 1 1/16 miles on turf at Churchill Downs on June 18.

Earlier this year, Obviously finished second to Bolo in the Grade 2 Arcadia Stakes. Bolo will not start in the Shoemaker Mile because of a throat infection, trainer Carla Gaines said this week. What a View, who won the Grade 1 Frank Kilroe Mile on March 12, is not in the field because of tender feet.

Om, a winner of three stakes last year for 3-year-olds on turf, was turned out after a sixth in the Kilroe Mile and recently resumed training with Dan Hendricks.

D’Amato, the leading trainer at the Santa Anita spring-summer meeting through Monday, has two runners in the Shoemaker – Midnight Storm and Cape Wolfe.

The Shoemaker will be the first start in a Grade 1 for Cape Wolfe, an Irish import who has won 3 of 16 starts. Cape Wolfe is winless in four starts in the United States, including a fourth in the Arcadia Stakes, his only start a mile in that span.

Cape Wolfe was second in the Grade 3 San Simeon Stakes at about 6 1/2 furlongs on the hillside turf course April 2 and fourth as the 5-2 favorite in an optional claimer on the same course May 12. D’Amato said Cape Wolfe is ready for another start at a mile.

“I’ve always wanted to run him long,” D’Amato said. “He strikes me that he may like a mile more than 6 1/2. He’ll save ground and pounce.”