Spielberg Provides Drama in Close Los Alamitos Futurity
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Photo: Benoit Photo
Spielberg (outside) edges The Great One to win the Los Alamitos Futurity at Los Alamitos Race Course
Leave it to Spielberg to add drama to a six-horse Los Alamitos Futurity (G2).
The 2-year-old Union Rags colt, a $1 million yearling purchase, needed the length of the Los Alamitos Race Course stretch to get up in the final stride and register a nose victory over 33-1 longshot and pacesetter The Great One. The victory in the $200,500 race gave Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert his seventh consecutive Los Alamitos Futurity, all since the Futurity was moved to the Orange County track following the 2013 closure of Hollywood Park, where it had previously been run as the Hollywood Futurity.
Counting earlier wins in the Hollywood Futurity, Baffert has notched 13 victories in the race, one of the most prestigious 2-year-old stakes on the West Coast. It was a grade 1 before the American Graded Stakes Committee downgraded it to a grade 2 beginning in 2019.
Won in the past by horses such as A.P. Indy, Best Pal, Real Quiet, Point Given, Lookin At Lucky , Shared Belief, and Improbable , the Los Alamitos Futurity provided points on a 10-4-2-1 scale to its top four finishers as part of the Road to the Kentucky Derby series.
Though Saturday's favorite Red Flag never contended, The Great One did his part to make Spielberg work for his first graded stakes victory. A maiden and the longest price on the toteboard, he showed the way under Abel Cedillo. Setting comfortable fractions of :23.01, :47.15, and 1:10.66, the son of Nyquist threatened to lead wire to wire, maintaining a clear two-length advantage with a furlong remaining in the 1 1/16-mile race.
But under left- and then late right-handed urging from Flavien Prat, Spielberg, who had stalked the pace three wide in third, was able to reel in the leader and nail The Great One on the wire in a head-bobbing finish. Owned by SF Racing, Starlight Racing, Madaket Stables, Golconda Stables, Siena Farm, and Robert Masterson, he was timed in 1:42.56 on a fast track and returned $5.80 for a $2 win wager.
Prat won his second consecutive Los Alamitos Futurity after taking the race for the first time last year on Thousand Words for Baffert.
"I talked to Bob after the race and never heard him so excited and relieved at the same time. I congratulated him on winning seven of the things in a row, and he corrected me and told me he had won 13," said Starlight Racing co-founder Jack Wolf with a laugh. "I guess I wasn't counting all of them at different places.
"(Spielberg) reminded me of Authentic in his early days. He couldn't get his mind on business. I didn't notice but I guess he got whacked a couple times on his right side and the rider got him over there (on top). I thought we got the (head) bob, but you never know with those kind of things. It was very exciting."
Starlight Racing, SF Racing, and Madaket Stables were some of the owners associated with Authentic, winner of this year's Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1) and Longines Breeder's Cup Classic (G1).
Behind the top pair in the Los Alamitos Futurity, Petruchio, a maiden graduate in his fourth start, rallied from last to grab third, 3 1/2 lengths behind runner-up The Great One.
He was followed in fourth by Red Flag, winner of last month's Bob Hope Stakes (G3) at Del Mar. The latter, who tracked the pace in fourth along the inside during the early running, came up empty in his first route after racing in tight quarters along the inside on the second turn. He lost by 8 1/2 lengths.
Weston, the only other graded winner in the field, taking the Best Pal Stakes (G2) over the summer, ran fifth and Positivity was sixth.
The Los Alamitos Futurity was a bounce-back performance from Spielberg, who had disappointed when fourth in the Bob Hope Stakes, a poor effort Baffert blamed on him running the colt back quickly on two weeks' rest and the colt not handling shipping well.
Spielberg improved his record to 2-2-1 from six starts with earnings that now stand at $257,200. Earlier this year he had run second in the Runhappy Del Mar Futurity (G1) and third in the American Pharoah Stakes (G1).
"I'm just happy for everybody in the ownership group," Baffert said after Saturday's race. "Now we can start thinking Derby. It starts here for us."
Bred in Kentucky by G. Watts Humphrey Jr., Speilberg is the first stakes winner of the winning Smart Strike mare Miss Squeal, whose other foal to race is three-time winner and $98,665 earner Higher Road (by Quality Road ). The dam also has a yearling filly by Honor Code and a Bernardini weanling filly. She was reported bred earlier this year to City of Light .
Speilberg was bought from the Lane's End consignment at the 2019 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. SF's Tom Ryan, Baffert, and bloodstock agent Donato Lanni were on hand to purchase him for SF Bloodstock, Starlight Racing, and Madaket Stables.
"I'm not sure this makes him a bonafide stallion prospect, but a grade 2 winner and grade 1-placed, it sounds pretty good to me," Wolf said.