A Mo Reay would get up (outside) to Deny Favored Fun to Dream by a Head in Grade I, $500,000 Beholder Mile (Ernie Belmonte/Past The Wire)
Del Mar Press Release
DEL MAR, Calif.—After banging heads with Adare Manor and A Mo Reay, two of the top Distaff runners in the country, Fun to Dream has been given a much easier spot this time around. The CTBA’s Horse of the Year is back in the $100,000 Tranquility Lake Monday, part of a twin-bill of stakes action on Labor Day at Del Mar.
Fun to Dream nearly beat A Mo Reay in the G1 Beholder, getting run down on the wire and finishing second. She didn’t fair nearly as well against stablemate Adair Manor in the G1 Clement Hirsch last out, finishing fifth and last, beaten by 8 ¼ lengths.
“We were disappointed in her last race,” trainer Bob Baffert says. “She got away bad and got behind and just wasn’t happy that day.”
Prior to the Beholder, Fun to Dream had compiled an impressive resume. She won six of her first seven races, including last year’s Fleet Treat at Del Mar by 9 ¼ lengths. She put together a four-race win streak that stretched from October to February and included a win in the $100,000 Betty Grable at Del Mar last fall, as well as victories in the G1 La Brea and G2 Santa Monica at Santa Anita. She was not only dominating the Cal-bred division but now she was beating the best distaffers in Southern California.
Although her near miss in the Beholder snapped her win streak it didn’t dissuade many of her believers. But things changed with the Clement Hirsch performance and the one-mile Tranquility Lake should be more to her liking.
She gets Juan Hernandez back in the saddle. He rode her in her first eight races before choosing Adare Manor in the Clement Hirsch.
Trainer Richard Mandella has upset on his mind. He brings Micro Share to the Tranquility Lake. She’s won her last two races, an entry level allowance race at Pleasanton followed by another entry level allowance race at Del Mar. Up to that point she had only won once in seven starts.
Another that bears watching is Yuki, a Chilean-bred filly who won a second-level allowance race in her first start at Del Mar last month. She’s trained by Amador Sanchez, who annually brings a string of horses from his base at Gulfstream Park to Del Mar for the summer.
“Yuki’s fast, she’s a good filly,” Sanchez says. “This one (the Tranquility) is a mile but I would like to try her at more distance. She runs in the front so I don’t want her to fight with any other filly. That’s the best scenario in the race for us.”
Yuki represents Sanchez’ lone winner at the summer meet.
The Tranquility Lake is the fifth race on the 11-race holiday card at Del Mar. Approximate post time is 3:30 p.m.
Here’s the field from the rail with the jockeys and morning line odds:
1. Trouville (Antonio Fresu, 15-1)
2. Una Chiquitita (Kent Desormeaux, 15-1)
3. Micro Share (Mike Smith, 5/2)
4. Yuki (Hector Berrios, 7/2)
5. Fun to Dream (Juan Hernandez, 4/5)
6. Smoothlikebuttah (Tiago Pereira, 6-1)
