Where's the Remote gets tuneup for major stakes

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Thursday’s third race at Hollywood Park will determine how ambitious owner Greg Unruh and trainer Mike Mitchell will be in coming weeks with Where’s the Remote.

Where’s the Remote, 4, will start favored in an allowance race over 1 1/4 miles on turf on Thursday evening. A win could lead to a start in the $500,000 Breeders’ Cup Marathon over 1 3/4 miles on dirt at Churchill Downs on Nov. 5. A back-up plan is the $250,000 Hollywood Turf Cup over 1 1/2 miles on Nov. 13.

“We still have both races in our sights,” Mitchell said on Tuesday.

For Unruh and Mitchell, Thursday’s $44,000 allowance race is a chance to give Where’s the Remote a late October prep race following a fast-closing second in the Grade 1 Clement Hirsch Turf Championship over 1 1/4 miles here on Oct. 3.

“If I ran him in the Breeders’ Cup or the Turf Cup, I’d still have to work him,” Mitchell said. “This way, I can get a race under his belt. He’s doing really well.

“It’s a nice pot here because he’s a California-bred. Should he win that, it would help pay bills for the Breeders’ Cup.”

A winner of 3 of 6 starts, Where’s the Remote is part of a field of five in the allowance. Three of the runners started in the Clement Hirsch, including Falcon Rock, who was fifth, and Worth Repeating, who was seventh in a field of eight.

Where’s the Remote was last in that field to the eighth pole and finished three-quarters of a length behind Champ Pegasus, a candidate for the BC Turf on Nov. 6. Champ Pegasus is trained by Richard Mandella, who starts Worth Repeating. A 4-year-old colt, Worth Repeating was third in the Grade 2 Del Mar Handicap over 1 3/8 miles on turf on Aug. 29, a performance that makes him competitive in Thursday’s race.

Falcon Rock was fourth in the Del Mar Handicap and second in the Grade 2 Jim Murray Handicap over 1 1/2 miles on turf at Hollywood Park in May. In the Hirsch, Falcon Rock was second at the eighth pole but lost position late and was beaten 2 1/2 lengths by Champ Pegasus.

Romp and Gothic Samurai also start, but were well beaten in their last starts.