12/13/12
Last updated: 12/12/12 5:46 PM
He’s Had Enough, Baffert four top
CashCall Futurity; 10 entered in Turf Cup
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Carving captured the local prep for the CashCall Futurity
(Benoit Photos) |
Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert, who has won the CashCall
Futurity three times in the last four years, will send out four two-year-olds in
quest of another victory in the Grade 1 Saturday at Hollywood Park.
Scheduled at 1 1/16 miles over the Cushion Track, the
CashCall
Futurity, which offers a guaranteed purse of $750,000, tops a 10-race program
that also features the Grade 2, $250,000
Hollywood Turf Cup at 1
1/2 miles.
Additionally, the final Saturday of the autumn meet will
feature a Pick Six pool that is guaranteed at $150,000. Should the pool exceed
$200,000, $1 food and drink Happy Hour specials will be available at Whittingham’s Pub. The $200,000 figure has easily been topped through the first
five weeks of the season.
Baffert, who has won the Futurity a record six times, will
be represented by Carving, Den’s Legacy, Really Mr Greely and Title Contender.
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Owned by Baffert’s wife, Jill, and Olympic skier Bode Miller, Carving, who is
being supplemented at a total cost of $30,000, is already a stakes winner at the
meet. The son of Any Given Saturday captured the Real Quiet on November 10,
which was his third victory in four starts. Carving’s only loss to date came as
a fourth in the Grade 1 FrontRunner (formerly Norfolk) on September 29.
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Really Mr Greely held off his odds-on stablemate Super Ninety Nine in the Prevue
(Benoit Photos) |
Den’s Legacy and Really Mr Greely have also won stakes, both Grade 3s, during
the current season at Hollywood Park.
Den’s Legacy rallied to take the November 24 Generous on turf to add a second
win to his resume. Runner-up in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint Preview
and Zuma Beach prior to the Generous, the Medaglia d’Oro bay will be returning
to the main track in the CashCall Futurity.
Really Mr Greely captured his Grade 3 when upsetting the Hollywood Prevue on November 22 as an 11-1 outsider. The
victory was the second in three starts for the dark bay son of Horse Greeley, who is owned by Mike Pegram, Karl Watson and Paul Weitman,
the same partnership that won the 2009 CashCall Futurity with Lookin at Lucky.
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Title Contender will be making
his Cushion Track debut after finishing eighth of nine in the Breeders’
Cup Juvenile on November 3 at Santa Anita. A son of the recently deceased Pulpit,
the dark bay broke his maiden by 2 3/4 lengths at Santa Anita in late September.
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He’s Had Enough (gray) just missed to Shanghai Bobby in the BC Juvenile
(Benoit Photos) |
He’s Had Enough, a more likely Futurity challenger from the Breeders’ Cup
Juvenile, just missed by a neck in that 1 1/16-mile contest in his first try on
a conventional dirt surface, and will be making his local debut for trainer Doug
O’Neill on Saturday. The gray son of Tapit captured his maiden debut at Del Mar
in mid-August, but hasn’t been able to find the winner’s circle in three starts
since.
Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas — who won the first of his four
Futurities with Stalwart in the inaugural running in 1981 — will send out
Oxbow, an Awesome Again colt who recently graduated by 4 3/4 lengths at
Churchill Downs, while trainer Todd Pletcher has the unbeaten Violence ready to
make his third start, and first outside of New York, in the race. The Medaglia
d’Oro dark bay followed a debut win at Saratoga on August 18 with a two-length
triumph in the Grade 2 Nashua Stakes at Aqueduct on November 4.
Completing the CashCall Futurity field are Fury Kapcori, Dirty Swagg and
Simon Eyes, the respective 2-3-4 finishers in the Real Quiet, and last-out
maiden debut winner Little Jerry.
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Two races prior to the Futurity, a field of 10 turf runners will go in the 1
1/2-mile Hollywood Turf Cup. Grandeur will try to become the first
three-year-old since Bien Bien in 1992 to win the race after being runner-up as
the favorite in the Grade 1 Hollywood Derby on November 25.
Trained by Jeremy Noseda, Grandeur finished 1 1/2 lengths behind Unbridled
Command in the Derby after taking the Grade 2 Twilight Derby (formerly Oak Tree
Derby) in his U.S. debut on November 2 at Santa Anita. The Irish-bred son of
Verglas has won five of 11, and the gray gelding will be trying 12 furlongs for
the first time Saturday.
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Bourbon Bay will be making just his second start since taking the San Juan Capistrano in late April
(Benoit Photos) |
Second in the 2011 Grade 1 renewal of the Hollywood Turf Cup, Bourbon Bay will
be looking to provide Hall of Fame trainer Neil Drysdale with his first Turf Cup
victory. The gelded son of Sligo Bay has thus far captured six Grade 2 contests
during his five seasons of racing, but the six-year-old has yet to win over the Hollywood Park grass
while finishing second or third in five of those six losses.
Drysdale will also be represented by Fire
With Fire, a four-year-old gelded son of Distorted Humor who ran third in the
Grade 2 Del Mar Handicap in late August.
Other contenders in the Hollywood Turf Cup include dual Grade 2 victor Slim
Shadey, runner-up in the Grade 1 Charles Whittingham
Memorial Handicap on June 9 in his lone start over the local grass and trying to
rebound from a dull performance in last month’s Breeders’ Cup Turf; multiple
Grade 2 hero Grassy, a rallying second in the Breeders’ Cup Marathon last out;
Grade 3 scorer Optimizer, who will be making his third start since November 3 for
Lukas after finishing a close fifth in the Grade 3 River City Handicap on November 25 at
Churchill Downs just 22 days after running 11th of 12 in the Breeders’ Cup Turf;
and Grade 3 winner Kindergarden Kid, who split the field in the Breeders’ Cup
Turf and counts as a half-brother CashCall Futurity
contender He’s Had Enough.
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