SPRINT PREVIEW
Locally-based runners and horses with prior winning form over the surface
dominated main track events the first three years the Breeders’ Cup was held
over a traditional dirt surface at Santa Anita in 1986, 1993 and 2003.
Interestingly, two of the three exceptions occurred in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint,
when Smile (1986) and Cajun Beat (2003) invaded from west of the Mississippi to
win the six-furlong dash that will be renewed Saturday.
Much of the wagering action will center on a group of horses exiting the
Santa Anita Sprint Championship, a course-and-distance prep known before this
year as the Ancient Title. A disappointing fourth in that October 6 contest was
Amazombie, last year’s Breeders’ Cup Sprint hero who up until then was
considered the de facto leader of the division leading up to his title defense.
Despite enduring a couple losses during the campaign, Amazombie has also been
at his very best this term with victories in the Potrero Grande and Bing Crosby.
The former is one of four career stakes wins Amazombie has had over the Santa
Anita strip, and it was clearly not the track itself that contributed to his
fourth-place showing in the Sprint Championship. It was reported recently that
Amazombie’s blood counts were off following his relatively poor try and that
he’s presently in better health.
Benefiting from Amazombie’s off day were the Bob Baffert-trained pair of Coil
and Capital Account, who were separated by a head at the finish. Wearing
blinkers and sprinting for the first time in more than a year, Coil rallied from
seven lengths down to register the 7-1 upset. It was the first stakes win around
one turn for the son of Point Given, a long-winded colt who gave Baffert
back-to-back classic wins in the 2001 Preakness and Belmont.
Capital Account, who had run third to Amazombie in the Bing Crosby at Del
Mar, rebounded to take the Pat O’Brien over the same track and then narrowly
missed catching his stablemate in the Sprint Championship while attempting to
rally from farther back. Third in the Sprint Championship was the lightly-raced
Jimmy Creed, a three-year-old making his graded stakes debut. He, too, rallied
from the second tier to get within three parts of a length of the winner, and
all four of the prep’s major players could benefit from a quick pace expected to
be provided by the Sprint’s East Coast invaders.
The three-year-olds Trinniberg and Sum of the Parts are clearly among the
race’s swiftest gate horses, although both bring with them questions of relative
class. Trinniberg peaked early in the season with victories in the Swale, Bay
Shore and Woody Stephens against his own age group, but has dropped three
straight in the interim against similarly restricted fields. Sum of the Parts
earned his way to the Breeders’ Cup with a victory against older foes in the
Phoenix at Keeneland, but has thus far been a more potent factor on synthetic
surfaces.
Worthy of more serious consideration is The Lumber Guy, a gray three-year-old
who came off a 4 1/2-month layoff to defeat older rivals in the September 29
Vosburgh at Belmont Park. While technically not an upset as he was part of an
entry that started as the 2-1 favorite, The Lumber Guy was very much considered
the “lesser half” of the entry and most certainly would have started at higher
odds had he started uncoupled in the wagering. The Lumber Guy’s form was not
without merit, though, as he possessed two solid wins earlier in the year in the
one-mile Jerome at Aqueduct and the seven-furlong Miracle Wood at Laurel.
Poseidon’s Warrior dueled for the lead and retreated late in the Vosburgh,
but is far from a need-the-lead type. Two starts ago, in the Alfred G.
Vanderbilt Handicap at Saratoga, Poseidon’s Warrior enjoyed a perfect
stalk-and-pounce journey in the mud to record the 36-1 upset. However, the son
of 2004 Sprint winner Speightstown has spent a large swath of his career
struggling to defeat lesser opponents.
Gantry, who was the first to qualify for the Sprint after a five-length
domination of the Smile Sprint Handicap at Calder in July, has raced just once
since then, mystifyingly losing by two lengths in a minor stakes at Louisiana
Downs. The Pulpit gelding finished five lengths behind Amazombie in the
seven-furlong Churchill Downs in May.
Fast Bullet is the mystery horse of this year’s Sprint field. The
Speightstown colt will enter the race without having run in 51 weeks, but Hall
of Fame trainer Bob Baffert apparently believes the chestnut can compete against
the division’s best. Fast Bullet has drawn rave reviews from his exceptional
morning workouts of late, and he was dominating winner of his two starts in the
fall of 2011 – a 6 1/4-length maiden score at Santa Anita and a 3 3/4-length
allowance romp at Hollywood Park, both over six furlongs.
Others of note are Hamazing Destiny, who finished an upset second in the 2010
Sprint but has never risen above Grade 3 quality since, and multiple Grade 1
veteran Smiling Tiger, whose form appeared to peak more than a year ago.