Weekend Warrior for Saturday, May 30: Picks for Mountainview, Opening Verse, Californian
Santa Anita and Penn National share the stakes spotlight Saturday. Santa Anita’s card is topped by the Grade 1, $400,000 American Oaks and is supported by the Grade 2, $200,000 Californian. Penn National’s main event is the Grade 3, $500,000 Penn Mile, and there are a handful of stakes on that undercard, the most noteworthy being the $200,000 Mountainview Handicap.
Other stakes worthy of mention include the Grade 3, $100,000 Aristides at Churchill Downs, which marks the return of last year’s Eclipse Award-winning male sprinter, Work All Week, and the $200,000 Pennine Ridge at Belmont Park.
Mountainview Handicap
Albano, Golden Lad, and Kid Cruz are the first three favorites on this race’s morning line, but none is so imposing that you can’t look for bigger prices elsewhere. Albano did win the Maxxam Gold Cup two starts back but controlled what seemed to be a slow pace and victimized a soft group. Albano also was beaten last time out in the oddly and slowly run New Orleans Handicap by an implausible longshot.
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Golden Lad won the Essex Handicap two starts back in a solid performance, but his soundly beaten fourth in the Oaklawn Handicap most recently was anything but solid. It’s not a good sign that Golden Lad lost a battle for third in that one to Tapiture, who hasn’t looked anything like his old self in his three starts this year.
Kid Cruz was a good second in his last start to Red Vine, who has become a monster since being switched to dirt and came back to win the Majestic Light Stakes with a 106 Beyer Speed Figure. However, Kid Cruz hasn’t earned a Beyer higher than 93 in almost a year, and he will have to do much better than that to win this.
I like Farhaan, and I’m not at all thrown by his ugly-looking last-place finish in the Ben Ali in his only start this year. I can forgive that outing for a couple of reasons. First, although he has run well fresh in the past, that was Farhaan’s first start in eight months. More importantly, Farhaan, a closer, was compromised by a complete lack of pace in the Ben Ali. Protonico controlled the pace in that one, went on to romp, and showed that he’s pretty darn good when he came back to win the Alysheba in his next start.
Farhaan has worked well since his Ben Ali debacle, and he gets more pace on Saturday to set up his late run. He might not get as much pace as he did when he dominated the Alydar last summer at Saratoga, earning a field-best Beyer of 106. But unlike in the Ben Ali, there is enough to give him a puncher’s chance.
Opening Verse Stakes
This is the supporting feature to the Aristides, and it’s usually not my style to take a horse making his first start on turf in a stakes event, which is exactly what Departing is doing here. But I’ve been waiting a long time for Departing to try grass, and I’m not going to let him run in on me just because this race has a name on it.
Departing is by War Front, a standout sire whose runners have excelled on both turf and dirt, and is out of a dam whose two other foals to race combined to win six of 20 starts on turf. But not only is the pedigree there, so is the preparation. Trainer Al Stall has worked Departing twice on turf this month. Finally, Departing is plenty good enough. Although he banked more than $1.3 million as a 3-year-old by avoiding his division’s best horses, he showed his capabilities last year by finishing second to Cigar Street in the Homecoming Classic and third in the Stephen Foster Handicap.
Californian Stakes
I acknowledge that Moreno will take some beating here, but Sammy Mandeville is an appealing alternative because he should offer some value.
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Sammy Mandeville, who has come into his own since moving to dirt, lost two close decisions this year to Catch a Flight, who is also in this race. But Sammy Mandeville got stopped on the far turn in that first meeting and was best, and he tried an inside stretch rally last time in the Precisionist, a move that doesn’t work that often. Sammy Mandeville’s outside draw here puts him in a position this time to make an unobstructed, sweeping rally.