ARCADIA, Calif. – From a class-handicapping perspective, there is a stark contrast between a Grade 1 race with a $1 million purse and an ungraded stakes worth $100,000.
Therefore, based on class, the favorite in the Eddie Logan Stakes scheduled for Wednesday at Santa Anita looks tough. The colt’s name is Stark Contrast.
Two months after finishing second at 58-1 in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf, Stark Contrast returns as the choice to win the ungraded Eddie Logan. A field of seven is entered in the turf mile, the final stakes of the season for 2-year-olds.
Stark Contrast’s odds will be a fraction of his Breeders’ Cup price; he is listed at 8-5 on Wednesday. But the Logan is no walkover. Rivals include Grade 1-placed Plutarch, a last-out maiden winner by more than four lengths, and last-out Grade 3 winner Unrivaled Time.
Michael McCarthy trains Stark Contrast, whose improving form coincided with his switch to turf and two turns. Fourth in his dirt-sprint debut, the Caravaggio colt went steadily upward since – maiden winner, Grade 3 Zuma Beach stakes winner, and Breeders’ Cup runner-up.
“Nice horse, a lot of things came together for him here late in the summer into the fall,” McCarthy said.
Did they ever.
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Owned and bred by the Amerman Racing Stable of John and Jerry Amerman, Stark Contrast missed by only three-quarters of a length in the Breeders’ Cup. It was a better-than-looked effort, after which McCarthy targeted the Logan for his next start.
“Thought his race in the Breeders Cup was very good, a little bit of traffic trouble,” McCarthy said. “Take nothing away from the winner, but looking forward to leading him back over there. [He is] training very well.”
Kazushi Kimura rides Stark Contrast, a pace-presser who could inherit the lead in a race void of speed. That may or may not be a blessing. If Stark Contrast sets the pace by himself, it would put him in an unfamiliar position with no target for him to chase. He would not be the first lightly raced horse to get lost on the lead.
Plutarch is the main threat to Stark Contrast. Bob Baffert trains the well-bred colt, whose five starts include a runner-up finish in the Grade 3 Del Mar Juvenile Turf in September and a third-place finish in the Grade 1 American Pharoah on dirt in October.
Plutarch crushed turf maidens by more than four lengths last out; his rider is Juan Hernandez. Plutarch is by Into Mischief and produced by Grade 1 winner Stellar Wind.
Unrivaled Time followed his second-start maiden victory with a minor upset in the Grade 3 Cecil B. DeMille Stakes at Del Mar. Leonard Powell trains the California-bred son of Not This Time.
Others in the Logan include graded stakes-placed Third Beer, Iriseach, and Brigante. Caro Buono also entered the Logan, race 5 on a nine-race card that includes the Grade 3 Robert J. Frankel, race 7. In that filly-mare turf route, Public Assembly is expected to be heavily favored.
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