He's Had Enough, Baffert four top CashCall Futurity; 10 entered in Turf Cup
He's Had Enough, Baffert four top CashCall Futurity
Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert, who has won the CashCall Futurity three times in the last four years, will send out four two-year-olds in quest of another victory in the Grade 1 Saturday at Hollywood Park.
Scheduled at 1 1/16 miles over the Cushion Track, the CashCall Futurity, which offers a guaranteed purse of $750,000, tops a 10-race program that also features the Grade 2, $250,000 Hollywood Turf Cup at 1 1/2 miles.
Additionally, the final Saturday of the autumn meet will feature a Pick Six pool that is guaranteed at $150,000. Should the pool exceed $200,000, $1 food and drink Happy Hour specials will be available at Whittingham's Pub. The $200,000 figure has easily been topped through the first five weeks of the season.
Baffert, who has won the Futurity a record six times, will be represented by Carving, Den's Legacy, Really Mr Greely and Title Contender.
Owned by Baffert's wife, Jill, and Olympic skier Bode Miller, Carving, who is being supplemented at a total cost of $30,000, is already a stakes winner at the meet. The son of Any Given Saturday captured the Real Quiet on November 10, which was his third victory in four starts. Carving's only loss to date came as a fourth in the Grade 1 FrontRunner (formerly Norfolk) on September 29.
Really Mr Greely held off his odds-on stablemate Super Ninety Nine in the Prevue (Benoit Photos)
Den's Legacy and Really Mr Greely have also won stakes, both Grade 3s, during the current season at Hollywood Park.
Den's Legacy rallied to take the November 24 Generous on turf to add a second win to his resume. Runner-up in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint Preview and Zuma Beach prior to the Generous, the Medaglia d'Oro bay will be returning to the main track in the CashCall Futurity.
Really Mr Greely captured his Grade 3 when upsetting the Hollywood Prevue on November 22 as an 11-1 outsider. The victory was the second in three starts for the dark bay son of Horse Greeley, who is owned by Mike Pegram, Karl Watson and Paul Weitman, the same partnership that won the 2009 CashCall Futurity with Lookin at Lucky.
Title Contender will be making his Cushion Track debut after finishing eighth of nine in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile on November 3 at Santa Anita. A son of the recently deceased Pulpit, the dark bay broke his maiden by 2 3/4 lengths at Santa Anita in late September.
He's Had Enough (gray) just missed to Shanghai Bobby in the BC Juvenile (Benoit Photos)
He's Had Enough, a more likely Futurity challenger from the Breeders' Cup Juvenile, just missed by a neck in that 1 1/16-mile contest in his first try on a conventional dirt surface, and will be making his local debut for trainer Doug O'Neill on Saturday. The gray son of Tapit captured his maiden debut at Del Mar in mid-August, but hasn't been able to find the winner's circle in three starts since.
Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas -- who won the first of his four Futurities with Stalwart in the inaugural running in 1981 -- will send out Oxbow, an Awesome Again colt who recently graduated by 4 3/4 lengths at Churchill Downs, while trainer Todd Pletcher has the unbeaten Violence ready to make his third start, and first outside of New York, in the race. The Medaglia d'Oro dark bay followed a debut win at Saratoga on August 18 with a two-length triumph in the Grade 2 Nashua Stakes at Aqueduct on November 4.
Completing the CashCall Futurity field are Fury Kapcori, Dirty Swagg and Simon Eyes, the respective 2-3-4 finishers in the Real Quiet, and last-out maiden debut winner Little Jerry.