Saturday plays: Los Alamitos Futurity + another juvenile race

Last week, the Bob Baffert-trained Nothing Like You came into the Starlet (G2) at Los Alamitos with successful route and stakes experience and won. In contrast, her inexperienced stablemate Grazia faded to last.

On Saturday, Baffert has three horses entered in the Grade 2, $200,000 Los Alamitos Futurity, but only one of them shows any stakes experience. The Baffert entry with experience will act as the key in the exacta wheel below.

Before diving into the Los Alamitos Futurity, here is a selection and bet for the loaded maiden special weight for 2-year-olds earlier on the card.

Los Alamitos race 7: 2-year-old maiden special weight

Battle Cruiser makes his debut for trainer John Sadler and Hronis Racing in this six-furlong maiden special weight. The son of Catalina Cruiser shows good signs both on paper and in his morning workouts.

When first-timers come from a family filled with win-early types, those horses tend to follow the same pattern as their bloodlines and win early.

Battle Cruiser’s sire Catalina Cruiser won his first four starts. While Battle Cruiser's dam Thatcher did not race once, her dam Keep the Peace won her first two starts, which gives Battle Cruiser win-early types on both sides.

Also watch Battle Cruiser's Dec. 10 workout on XBTV where he draws clear of his stablemate Scatify around the finish line under some mild urging. Battle Cruiser continues to move well around the second turn before the clip ends.

For value underneath, there are other options besides the Bob Baffert-trained March of Time, who is the morning-line favorite. The two value runners to place in second are March of Time’s stablemate Beneficial, who faded to fifth in Wine Me Up’s Sept. 2 maiden win at Del Mar, and Battle Cruiser’s stablemate Scatify.

If Battle Cruiser takes any action on the board, expect a big effort.

Win: 2 (at 8/5 or longer)

Exacta: 2 over 4,5

Los Alamitos race 9: Los Alamitos Futurity (G2)

Wine Me Up brings his proven graded-stakes experience into this race and plenty of speed if Baffert wishes to instruct jockey Juan Hernandez to use it. Forget about Wine Me Up’s flop in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile where he was thrown into that type of race too soon. Back on Oct. 7, he ran second in the American Pharoah (G1) in a promising effort.

In the American Pharoah, Wine Me Up set moderate fractions of 23.30, 46.49 and 1:10.22 for the 1 1/16-mile race. His stablemate Muth eventually caught him after stalking the pace on the inside and tipping out on the far turn. Muth won by 3 3/4 lengths after taking over, but Wine Me Up still had a good 5 1/4 lengths on Be You in third.

Overall, Wine Me Up gave a great performance for a horse making only his second start while facing a talented and more experienced colt in Muth. For his effort, TimeformUS gave Wine Me Up a respectable 112, which stands as the highest speed figure in the Los Alamitos Futurity.

Muth went on to finish second in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile while proving no match for the winner Fierceness, who dominated by 6 1/4 lengths. At least Muth backed up the quality of the American Pharoah. Meanwhile, Wine Me up folded all the way to eighth and double-digit lengths behind the winner, but again, he was not ready for that race.

Wine Me Up’s American Pharoah run likely indicates his true ability.

As for Coach Prime, he won his second career start by over seven lengths in a one-mile maiden race at Del Mar. But as a midpack runner in that race, the pace did collapse in front of him after the early fractions went in a hot 21.44 and 44.94. Coach Prime’s final TimeformUS figure did not come back fast either at only 104.

Coach Prime has talent and might go on to become a major player in this division. Since he is the morning line favorite though at 2-1 and likely to remain as the favorite, he is a play-against in this spot.

For value in second, Stronghold makes sense as one option. Stronghold was the runner-up in the Bob Hope Stakes (G3) behind the impressive Baffert-trained colt Nysos, who won by 8 3/4 lengths. Even though Stronghold lost by many lengths, he still ran a 107 on TimeformUS.

The other option is Moonlit Sonata, who broke his maiden at first asking on Nov. 25 at Del Mar for trainer Tim Yakteen when he caught his fast stablemate All That Glory on the lead and pulled away by 2 1/2 lengths.

Moonlit Sonata earned a 103 on TimeformUS, but he can improve on the stretch out to a route given his pedigree. His dam Distorted Champ is a half-sister to Champ Pegasus, who was second in the 2010 Breeders’ Cup Turf.

Consider Stronghold and Moonlit Sonata underneath Wine Me Up.

Win: 6 (at 8/5 or longer)

Exacta: 6 over 1,3