Whether it’s the Hollywood Futurity, the CashCall Futurity, or the Los Alamitos Futurity, Bob Baffert usually finds his way to the winner’s circle.
And it’s likely to happen again on Saturday when the Hall of Famer trainer sends out three of the five 2-year-olds entered in the xxx edition of the 1 1/16-mile Futurity at Los Alamitos (post time is 7 p.m. ET).
Gaming and jockey Flavien Prat win the Grade I, $300,000 Del Mar Futurity, Sunday, September 8, 2024 at Del Mar Thoroughbred CLub, Del Mar CA.
© BENOIT PHOTO
Gaming makes his first start since the Breeders’ Cup in the Los Al Futurity
Of course, he’ll have the favorites in 2-5 Gaming, the Del Mar Futurity (G1) winner and runner-up to stablemate Citizen Bull in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1), as well as 3-1 Getaway Car (fourth in the Juvenile), and promising Mellencamp (15-1) set to take on Rank (15-1) and Journalism (6-1).
Baffert has won this race 13 times since Captain Steve gave him his first victory in the 1999 edition, when it was run at Hollywood Park. It remained at the track but was renamed the CashCall Futurity from 2007-2013, and then moved to Los Alamitos in 2014 after Hollywood was shut down.
The Los Alamitos Futurity is a Kentucky Derby (G1) points qualifier with 10 points going to the winner, and a sliding scale of 5-3-2-1 to the next four finishers.
Since the move to Los Alamitos, Baffert has won the Futurity eight of the last 10 years, including last year’s edition with Wynstock. He’s also dominated the top 3 in each of the past 10 runnings with an 8-5-4 record from 20 starters. In the two years his 2-year-olds didn’t win – 2022 and 2021 — they ran 2-3-5 and 2-3, respectively. It should also be noted that the fields have been compact the past decade, averaging about five each year.
Really, though, there seems no way of stopping Baffert on Saturday. Rank, trained by Doug O’Neill, is 0-for-5 and ran sixth of seven in the Del Mar Futurity, nearly 13 lengths behind Gaming.
Journalism, trained by Mike McCarthy, may have a better chance. A son of Curlin, the colt broke his maiden at second asking on Nov. 17 at Del Mar, winning at a mile over Rank and Mellencamp.
O’Neill remains optimistic Rank is ready to roll.
“We’re going to act like he’s a winner even though he’s a maiden,” O’Neill told drf.com. “He’s been knocking on the door. He’s had a couple of halfway decent runner-up [finishes]. He’s better than an average talent.”
For those who bet horse racing …
The picks: 1 Gaming 2 Journalism 3 Getaway Car
The field for the $200,000 Los Alamitos Futurity (G3), from the rail out, with jockey, trainer, odds:
1 Gaming (Flavien Prat, Bob Baffert), 2-5
2 Mellencamp (Kazushi Kimura, Bob Baffert), 15-1
3 Getaway Car (Juan Hernandez, Bob Baffert), 3-1
4 Rank (Antonio Fresu, Doug O’Neill), 15-1
5 Journalism (Umberto Rispoli, Mike McCarthy), 6-1