Silver Lightening © Benoit Photo
Two-year-olds. Juveniles. Youngsters. Babies.
You get to call them what you want. And you also get to attach your label to eight of them at Del Mar Friday who will match strides at six furlongs in the featured attraction on the eight-race program that has a first post of 3 p.m.
The test carries a $50,000 purse and is run under starter optional claiming conditions that doesn’t allow for horses who have won two races. The dash drew an interesting mix of three colts, two geldings and three fillies.
They’re a fairly tight-knit group and favoritism in the lineup isn’t the easiest thing to sort out. But our morning line maker, Jon White, has stepped up and hung the 5/2 favorite’s role on the Tommy Town Thoroughbreds’ homebred Man Oh Man, a son by their young stallion Stanford who has been mixing it up in stakes company of late.
The bay colt broke his maiden on June 12, then was a close-up third in a little stakes at Pleasanton before showing speed but falling back in a troubled trip against Cal-bred rivals at Del Mar in the Graduation Stakes on August 12. Trainer Jonathan Wong may have found him a good spot Friday and the saddle services of top rider Umberto Rispoli certainly won’t hurt.
Perhaps his chief threat in the race is the freshly minted maiden winner Silver Lightening, a gray filly who beat her own kind handily at Del Mar on August 12 in a maiden-claimer in what was her racing debut. The Union Rags miss races in the silks of Ryan or O’Neill and is trained by Doug O’Neill, who has signed on Armando Ayuso to ride her again.
Here’s the full field for the sprint in post-position order with riders and morning line odds:
Silver Lightening; Man Oh Man; Michael Miller’s Humblebumblefumble (Abel Cedillo, 6-1); B G Stables or Royalty Stable’s Merit Song (Joe Bravo, 5-1): Bernard, Fosselman or Ryan’s Paddle On Polly (Emily Ellingwood, 30-1); Paul Sabesky’s Smokin Amelia (Tyler Baze, 10-1); 47 Roses’ Spiritist (Ricky Gonzalez, 8-1), and Desert Sun Stables’ Let Him Do (Ryan Curtolo, 7/2).
The other two fillies in the lineup are Paddle On Polly and Smokin Amelia. Both have been given only longshot chances.
The other two colts are Let Him Do and Humblebumblefumble, both of whom have been accorded “a shot” on the Jon White line. The former, a son of the Curlin sire Good Magic, scored his first win in a $32,000 maiden-claimer locally on August 11, then was haltered out of that race by his current connections. He’ll run Friday out of the John Sadler barn.
Humblebumblefumble, a gray by the gray sire The Factor, also was claimed out of victory for $32,000, this one taking place at Los Alamitos on July 4. Steve Knapp now conditions the Florida-bred and arranged to have Cedillo, who won on the horse, back for another ride.