Game Winner Looks to Regain Mojo in Los Alamitos Derby
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Photo: Chad B. Harmon
Game Winner and Bob Baffert at Churchill Downs
In what should be little more than a paid public workout, champion Game Winner will face three foes July 13 in the $150,000 Los Alamitos Derby (G3).
Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert is hoping to use the nine-furlong Los Al Derby as a steppingstone to the Aug. 24 Runhappy Travers Stakes (G1) at Saratoga Race Course.
Game Winner's 3-year-old season hasn't gone as planned thus far. The Candy Ride colt was undefeated in his quartet of races last year, culminating in a hard-fought victory in the Sentient Jet Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1) for owners Gary and Mary West. This year, however, he debuted with a nose defeat to Omaha Beach in the Rebel Stakes (G2), lost a half-length decision to stablemate Roadster in the Santa Anita Derby (G1), and then checked in sixth, placed fifth, in the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1).
"He went off form, but I think we can get him back," noted Baffert, who moved his stable to Los Alamitos 30 years ago when he left his native Arizona.
Baffert has instilled a stiff series of five- and six-furlong works into his champion at Santa Anita Park.
Should Game Winner, who was bred in Kentucky by Summer Wind Equine out of the A.P. Indy mare Indyan Giving, win the Los Al Derby, he will push his earnings up over the $2 million mark.
Baffert has also entered Kingly in the race. Winner of the listed California Derby at Golden Gate Fields in April, the Tapit colt finished third—immediately behind eventual Queen's Plate Stakes victor One Bad Boy—in the Alcatraz Stakes, then finished fifth behind stablemates Mucho Gusto and Roadster in the June 16 Affirmed Stakes (G3). He might be on the lead here, serving as a target for Game Winner. If the favorite falters, however, Kingly is the most likely winner.
Feeling Strong has been in against Cal-breds for his entire 11-race career and comes in off a victory in allowance optional claiming company at Santa Anita three weeks ago. He has shown no early speed and will have to out-kick Game Winner to score.
Maiden Parsimony fills out the four-horse field. Pitched into both the Rebel and the Toyota Blue Grass Stakes (G2) this year, he failed to contend in either. He has run his best races on grass, hitting the board in his past three outs on the turf, including a second in the June 2 Cinema Stakes. Reddam Racing and Doug O'Neill are known for taking shots in stakes races, and they win them often enough to be considered. The owner and trainer teamed up to steal the 2017 Blue Grass Stakes with the maiden Irap.
LOS ALAMITOS RACE COURSE, Saturday, July 13, 2019, Race 6Entries: Los Alamitos Derby (G3)
PP
Horse
Jockey
Wgt
Trainer
M/L
1
1Game Winner (KY)
Joel Rosario
122
Bob Baffert
1/5
2
2Feeling Strong (CA)
Tiago Josue Pereira
122
Hector O. Palma
10/1
3
3Kingly (KY)
Mario Gutierrez
122
Bob Baffert
4/1
4
4Parsimony (PA)
Martin Garcia
122
Doug F. O'Neill
10/1
