Getaway Car © Benoit Photo
As is often the case in 2-year-old races at Del Mar, Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert is holding the strong hand. This time it is the 54th running of the Grade III Best Pal Stakes with the conditioner seemingly in the driver’s seat with a Curlin colt named Getaway Car for the Sunday feature.
Getaway Car, a $700,000 yearling purchase owned by the multi-partnered group headed by Gavin Murphy’s SF Racing as well as Jack and Laurie Wolf’s Starlight Racing, will break from the outside post in a short field of five in the six-furlong test that carries a purse of $150,000. The youngster has been hung a noteworthy 3/5 favorite.
Thing is, besides the stout favoritism to begin with, it could become even more stout for the colt. One of the current entrants in the Best Pal is the filly White Sands, who has shipped in from Kentucky with a Del Mar stakes race in mind this coming weekend. While that might be the Best Pal against the colts, it also could be the Sorrento Stakes Saturday against fillies, where she is currently entered and would be facing her own kind at the same six-furlong distance. Her trainer, Wesley Ward, has until one hour before post time Saturday (approximately 3 p.m.) to make a call on running or scratching and going Sunday. The Getaway Car folks, including Del Mar’s leading rider Juan Hernandez, will be watching that circumstance with interest.
Getaway Car has run only once, but it was a dandy. He showed speed from the gate going five furlongs at Del Mar on opening day, July 20, and never looked back, winning in the end by three and a half lengths in good time. Hernandez was aboard that day also. He’s come back to work twice since and should be primed for another big effort.
Should White Sands try the boys, she’ll have a few things going for her. The Into Mischief filly has run twice already and captured both in smart fashion. Her first go-round was at Belterra Park in Cincinnati where she towroped a field of straight maidens by nearly 10 lengths on May 25. She then came back six weeks later at Prairie Meadows racetrack in Iowa to outrun males by nearly 14 lengths in a little stakes race.
Kazushi Kimura has the call on the bay filly for the Best Pal.
The Best Pal goes as Race 3 on Sunday’s 10-race program, meaning its post time will be at approximately 3 p.m.