Prince of Monaco will be heavily favored to give trainer Bob Baffert a 17th career victory in the $300,000 Del Mar Futurity (G1) on Sunday. The seven-furlong fixture is is the highlight of an 11-race card that brings down the curtain on Del Mar’s summer meet
Prince of Monaco, 2-5 on the morning line, enters the Futurity with a 2-for-2 record. Victorious on debut at Los Alamitos by eight lengths at odds of 1-20, Prince of Monaco most recently landed the Best Pal (G3) by 4 1/4 lengths after showing rating ability early. He covered six furlongs in 1:09 and earned a 102 Brisnet Speed rating. Baffert also saddles three-race maiden Mirahmadi in the Futurity.
Baffert won his first Futurity in 1996 with Silver Charm, the eventual Kentucky Derby (G1) winner and Hall of Famer. Others that also went on to great acclaim and championships include Midshipman (2008), Lookin at Lucky (2009), American Pharoah (2014), and Game Winner (2018).
Five others will line up in the Futurity, the more logical of them being Best Pal third Raging Torrent and last-out maiden winner Rothschild, who finished more than four lengths adrift of Raging Torrent on debut July 23.
A slightly more competitive field of nine two-year-olds will line up in the $100,000 Del Mar Juvenile Turf (G3) over one mile earlier in the card. Boltage, an impressive 5 1/4-length winner in his turf debut for Richard Mandella, is the early favorite to follow up that maiden score with a victory Sunday.
Trainer Michael McCarthy has two potential contenders in Endlessly, who landed his debut on July 30, and the Irish import Sea Singer, who broke his maiden at Leopardstown when last seen in June.
