Southern California’s top turf miler in the spring of 2022, Count Again, resurfaces from a 14-month layoff in Sunday’s $250,000 Eddie Read (G2) at Del Mar. The eight-year-old gelding is among trainer Phil D’Amato’s quartet in the 1 1/8-mile test, which has attracted a variety of contenders stretching out or cutting back in distance.
The Sam-Son Farm-bred Count Again first emerged as a graded stakes player at Woodbine. After Agave Racing Stable bought an interest in him, he switched circuits and made an auspicious premiere here by taking the 2020 Seabiscuit H. (G2) during the Bing Crosby season. Count Again was knocking on the door in 2021, with a near-miss third in the Frank E. Kilroe Mile (G1) at Santa Anita and another closing third in that summer’s Eddie Read.
Following a five-month holiday, Count Again returned in early 2022 in the form of his life. The son of Awesome Again won the Thunder Road (G3) off the bench and got up in time in the Kilroe. Not beaten far in sixth in a blanket finish in Keeneland’s Maker’s Mark Mile (G1), Count Again turned in a career-best back at Santa Anita in the “Win and You’re In” Shoemaker Mile (G1). Unfortunately, that last-to-first, 2 1/4-length tally was the last we’ve seen of him. He was later sidelined by bone bruising, according to Daily Racing Form.
Umberto Rispoli will guide Count Again from the outside post 9, a draw that won’t matter for his closing style. A solid comeback can put him into discussion for the Breeders’ Cup Mile (G1), especially with this year’s championships being held at Santa Anita.
Two of his D’Amato stablemates are coming off unplaced efforts in the May 29 renewal of the Shoemaker Mile. Gold Phoenix, the reigning Kilroe Mile hero, checked in a subpar seventh in the Shoemaker. Balnikhov, the San Francisco Mile (G3) winner, was likewise disappointing in eighth. Both are eligible to rebound at Del Mar, where they won stakes at different distances last summer. While Gold Phoenix captured the 1 3/8-mile Del Mar H. (G2), Balnikhov scored in the one-mile Oceanside S. and finished a hard-charging fourth in the Del Mar Derby (G2). Antonio Fresu gets the Balnikhov assignment, and Hector Berrios climbs aboard Gold Phoenix.
Another D’Amato runner, pace factor Masteroffoxhounds, shortens up in the wake of a fifth in the Charles Whittingham (G2). His signature wins have come at that 1 1/4-mile trip, in the 2021 San Marcos (G2) and 2022 John Henry Turf Championship (G2). Yet to prevail going a furlong shorter, the War Front blueblood was fifth in last year’s Eddie Read and third in the Dec. 26 San Gabriel (G2). Masteroffoxhounds takes the blinkers off while picking up Edwin Maldonado.
San Gabriel winner Dicey Mo Chara had been a stakes bridesmaid until that 1 1/8-mile affair, and he’s lost the plot again since venturing over other trips. Third in the 1 1/2-mile San Luis Rey (G3) in his latest, the Leonard Powell charge reverts to his optimal conditions here with Juan Hernandez.
Cabo Spirit is another returning to arguably his preferred distance for George Papaprodromou. The winner of last fall’s Twilight Derby (G2) has been plying his trade unsuccessfully, if still creditably, at a mile. Cabo Spirit was third in the Kilroe Mile, and he’s the top finisher from the Shoemaker Mile (fifth) to advance to the Eddie Read.
Mackinnon has gone winless since his productive two-year-old campaign, culminating in a third to Modern Games in the 2021 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf (G1) over this course. But the American Pharoah colt tends to be thereabouts, and he rejoins original trainer Doug O’Neill after a stint with Chad Brown back East. Handy Dandy is still nibbling on the fringes at the graded level; his fourth in the course-and-distance Hollywood Derby (G1) implies that he could sneak into the lower rungs of the exotics. Northern California shipper I’mgonnabesomebody could add to the early tempo from his rail post, but his fifth in last year’s Wickerr S. here suggests he’s up against it in this deeper spot.
