Saturday marks the second time Richard Mandella embarks down the Yellow Brick Road with Omaha Beach.
This time, he hopes to reach the Emerald City.
He never got there on May 4, when the pre-race favorite for the Kentucky Derby missed the classic due to an entrapped epiglottis which ultimately required surgery. The son of War Front has not raced since, but is scheduled to return in Saturday’s Grade I, $300,000 Santa Anita Sprint Championship, a Breeders’ Cup “Win and You’re In” event.
The race will be decided at six furlongs, a distance in which Omaha Beach will be making his debut, having last raced at a mile and an eighth on April 13, capturing the Grade I Arkansas Derby on a sloppy track.
“I’m excited,” trainer Richard Mandella said at his barn early Thursday morning about the widely anticipated comeback of Omaha Beach. “I’m not sure if he’s quick enough to beat some of the top sprinters in there, but he sure acts like he could.”
“We’re anxious to see how it goes, but the main thing is getting him back to the races. We’ll see what might be next after we run. I’ll tell you after we get a race into him.”
The “top sprinter” is Shancelot, a front-running son of Shanghai Bobby trained by Jorge Navarro. Winner of three of his four starts, the three-year-old colt drew the advantageous outside post in a field of six and is Jon White’s 4-5 morning line favorite.
The Sprint Championship, race nine of 10 with a 12:30 p.m. first post time: $6,000 supplemental nominee One Flew South, Evin Roman, 30-1; Omaha Beach, Mike Smith, 8-5; Shancelot, Emisael Jaramillo, 4-5; Flagstaff, Victor Espinoza, 4-1; California Street, Drayden Van Dyke, 15-1; and Horse Greedy, Martin Pedroza, 15-1
From: Stable Notes, Ed Golden, Santa Anita Park
