ARCADIA, Calif. – It’s been a long time between wins for most runners entered in the $80,000 Lure Stakes on Saturday at Santa Anita, which is sort of the point.
The turf mile is restricted to horses who have not won a stakes race this year other than California-bred. This year’s Lure field took it to the extreme. Six of the seven entrants have not won any type race in more than a year, including a veteran gelding who upset the Lure in 2024.
Sumter will seek his second Lure victory, though he is just 1 for 21 the past three years. Others are in similar boats, such as Sumter’s Richard Mandella-trained stablemate Goliad, who has not won since September 2024.
Watsonville scored his most recent win in December 2023; program favorite St Anthony last won in August 2024; Endlessly is winless since March 2024. Mystic Spirit, second-level allowance winner this August, is the only entrant with a win this year.
Sumter is stretching out to a mile after he was unplaced in the Grade 3 Green Flash, a five-furlong turf race at Del Mar. He lost by less than three lengths.
“He finished pretty good, and I’m hoping it sets him up good for this race,”said Mandella, who also removes blinkers.
“I put them on to sprint, I thought it might make him sprint better,” Mandella.
The experiment did not work, though Sumter lost by only a small margin to a good field. The first- and fourth-place Green Flash finishers (Reef Runner and No Nay Hudson) won stakes in their next starts.
Mandella will remove blinkers from Sumter on Saturday; jockey Mike Smith is likely to position the gelding in the first flight. The pace is likely to be set by Sumter’s stablemate, Goliad.
Goliad finished sixth last out in the Grade 3 Mint Millions at Kentucky Downs, a race he won in 2024. No such luck this year, but Goliad had an alibi.
“He came back with a nasty bruise in a foot,” Mandella said. “But he’s doing real well now.”
Kazushi Kimura rides Goliad, a stone front-runner who won the Grade 3 Thunder Road at Santa Anita in 2024. He’ll be racing Saturday over a bias-free course. Santa Anita turf miles with the rails at 10 feet produced a variety of winners this fall: three were front-runner/pace-pressers; five winners rallied from the middle or back.
“We’re going to take [Goliad] back to last and make a run,” Mandella said, laughing. It was a joke. Mandella has no such plan. Goliad will try to win with his typical front-running style.
Watsonville returns from a three-month layoff with speed for a pressing trip and a Grade 2 win against 3-years-olds on his résumé. Mark Glatt trains Watsonville, whose rider is Antonio Fresu.
St Anthony finished sixth at Kentucky Downs last month; his speed figures rank among the field’s highest, although 5-2 program odds are low for a veteran who finished out of the money his last eight starts. Neil Drysdale trains St Anthony, whose rider is Juan Hernandez.
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