Extra Hope Carries High Aspirations Into Bob Hope

Owner Samantha Siegel has been around the game long enough to be guardedly optimistic, but when Extra Hope pulled away in the stretch Oct. 21 at Santa Anita Park, she couldn't help but think big.

After a stalking trip in the 1 1/16-mile maiden special weight race on dirt, the 2-year-old Shanghai Bobby colt breezed past frontrunner Magnificent McCool and powered away to win by 8 3/4 lengths under jockey Drayden Van Dyke.

"To have him put it all together—I can't remember the last time I had a 2-year-old win like this, where you go, 'Wow,' besides maybe Declan's Moon," Siegel said of her Jay Em Ess Stable homebred. "Who wouldn't get caught up in it?"

The comparison to the 2004 champion 2-year-old male will be tested Nov. 17 as Extra Hope will enter stakes competition for the first time in the $100,000 Bob Hope (G3) at Del Mar.

But the conditions of the Bob Hope aren't ideal for the developing Richard Mandella trainee. Siegel said they would have liked to run him around two turns again in a first-level allowance instead of cutting back to seven furlongs for the Bob Hope, but those types of races are hard to come by for juveniles in Southern California, and the colt is ready to run.

"I didn't want to go back to seven furlongs with him, but I didn't have any other options," Mandella said. "He's feeling too good not to run him."

If he handles the cutback, another step forward wouldn't be out of the question for the bay who didn't show brilliance in his first three starts.

Extra Hope began his racing career well enough, with a fast-closing, half-length second to eventual grade 1 entrant Sigalert at 5 1/2 furlongs Aug. 4 at Del Mar. Then came a far-back third going 6 1/2 furlongs Sept. 1 at Del Mar, and another well-beaten fourth behind eventual Sentient Jet Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1) sixth Dueling in his first start around two turns Sept. 28 at Santa Anita. Van Dyke was aboard for the first time in Extra Hope's third race and made a suggestion to add blinkers.

"Before he ran (in his debut), he acted like he wanted to go a half-mile. That's it," Mandella said. "But just before we ran him, I started taking him back in his workouts, and he started to finish. Then he ran a hell of a race first time out. It was disappointing when he didn't move forward (in his next two starts)."

Mandella isn't sure the equipment change directly led to the colt's breakthrough win, but the result spoke for itself.

"It was either a bad bunch or the blinkers worked. I just accepted it," the Hall of Fame trainer said. "He's just feeling and doing well. I can't say we've seen any miracle change other than what we saw in the race—that race was pretty impressive. Maybe that group wasn't very good. We'll find out."

The Bob Hope may not have been exactly what Extra Hope's connections were hoping for, but outside of last-out Sunny Slope Stakes winner Sparky Ville, the race is essentially a first-level allowance. Sparky Ville is the only two-time winner in the field, and two others are entering the Bob Hope off maiden wins, including the Bob Baffert-trained Mucho Gusto.

But Extra Hope already holds a special place in Siegel's heart as a second-generation homebred out of Lotsandlotsofhope, a Tiznow  mare who ran just once but had to be retired after she sustained an injury in her debut.

"We raised the mother, and she was a big, giant Tiznow filly," Siegel said of Lotsandlotsofhope, who also had a Bodemeister  filly in 2017 and a California Chrome  colt in 2018. "She lost her first start by a lip but came out of the race with a cracked pastern. This is her first foal, and he was always a nice-looking foal, and the other two look good, too. I wanted to keep the mare and give her a chance. I'm glad I did."

Entries: Bob Hope S. (G3)

Del Mar, Saturday, November 17, 2018, Race 8

• Grade III
• 7f
• Dirt
• $100,000
• 2 yo
• 4:00 PM (local)

PP	Horse	Jockey	Wgt	Trainer	M/L
98	1Metropol (KY)	SCRATCHED	0	UNKNOWN	-
1	2Extra Hope (KY)	Flavien Prat	118	Richard E. Mandella	7/2
2	3Mucho Gusto (KY)	Joseph Talamo	118	Bob Baffert	5/2
3	4Savagery (KY)	Rafael Bejarano	118	Peter Miller	4/1
4	5Owning (KY)	Mario Gutierrez	118	Simon Callaghan	15/1
5	6Sparky Ville (KY)	Gary L. Stevens	120	Jeff Bonde	3/1
6	7Sueno (KY)	Kent J. Desormeaux	118	J. Keith Desormeaux	15/1