Versatile Cistron prepping for Del Mar turf stakes

CYPRESS, Calif. – When Cistron won the first stakes of his career in the $150,000 Northern Spur at Oaklawn Park on April 15, the direction of his summer campaign changed remarkably.

Cistron earned $90,000 for Pete and Kosta Hronis and Little Red Feather Racing and therefore became ineligible to start in the $100,000 Oceanside Stakes at a mile on turf at Del Mar on July 19. The Oceanside is restricted to horses who have not earned a first-place purse of $50,000 or more this year.

Instead, Cistron will start in Saturday’s Grade 3 Los Alamitos Derby, a $200,000 race for 3-year-olds at 1 1/8 miles on dirt. While the Los Alamitos Derby can serve as a prep for lucrative stakes on the East Coast in the coming months, trainer John Sadler is thinking about turf races at the Del Mar summer meeting.

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“This gives him a chance to run there, and then we can run in the La Jolla,” he said.

The Grade 3 La Jolla Handicap, at 1 1/16 miles for 3-year-olds on turf Aug. 6, is a prep for the Grade 2 Del Mar Derby at 1 1/8 miles on turf Sept. 3.

Cistron certainly fits in the Los Alamitos Derby, and any other race for 3-year-olds on this circuit.

By The Factor, Cistron won twice on turf during the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting and placed in two turf stakes in the spring – a second in the Desert Code Stakes on the hillside course at Santa Anita on May 13 and a third in the Grade 2 Penn Mile in Pennsylvania on June 3, his latest start.

“He’s been versatile,” Sadler said. “He won on the dirt at Oaklawn and was a good third at Penn.”

The Los Alamitos Derby is the last graded stakes for 3-year-olds on dirt in California until the Grade 1 Malibu Stakes at seven furlongs at Santa Anita on Dec. 26. In the second half of the year, a majority of the graded stakes for 3-year-olds in California are run on turf.

The projected field of eight is led by West Coast, the winner of the Easy Goer Stakes at Belmont Park on June 10. Other runners are B Squared, Colonist, Kimbear, Klimt, Milton Freewater, and Term of Art.

Sharp Samurai, the winner of the Rainbow Stakes at 1 1/8 miles on turf at Santa Anita on June 10, will pass on the Los Alamitos Derby in favor of the La Jolla Handicap, trainer Mark Glatt said.