Seven juvenile males will line up in Saturday’s $200,000 Best Pal (G2), a six-furlong prep for the Del Mar Futurity (G1) on Labor Day, and trainer Doug O’Neill has the only prior stakes winner among the group in Fore Left.
Favored in both outings to date, the son of Twirling Candy was a game neck winner of his debut at Santa Anita in May, but had an easier time less than three weeks later when taking the $150,000 Tremont at Belmont Park by 4 1/2 lengths.
O’Neill also sends out Raging Whiskey, a dead-heat third to Fore Left in their mutuel debut but a maiden graduate in his next start on June 2 for then-trainer Luis Mendez. Raging Whiskey debuted for O’Neill in the July 13 Sanford (G3) at Saratoga, where he finished third while encountering trouble late in the running.
The evenly-matched group also features debut maiden winners Wrecking Crew, Collusion Illusion, and Schrodinger. The former two won earlier in the Del Mar meet, while the Simon Callaghan-trained Schrodinger won as an odds-on choice at Los Alamitos.
We’re Still Here has run second in both starts to date for Bob Baffert, while Thanks Mr. Eidson graduated on third asking by 9 1/2 lengths early in the Del Mar meet when racing for a $150,000 claiming tag.
“The light kind of clicked on for him that day,” trainer Jeff Bonde wittingly said of Thanks Mr. Eidson. “He had run well but had some trouble the (two) races before at Santa Anita, but the trip he got here was perfect.”
