Mastery and California Diamond: Potential vs. Experience
Saturday’s Grade 3 Bob Hope Stakes at Del Mar offers a very intriguing match-up. The race, for two-year-olds going seven furlongs over the main track, has drawn only a field of five, but in the favorites, it has attracted two of the most interesting young horses on the West Coast. What’s your pleasure -- proven experience or unlimited potential?
California Diamond is a very nice horse. It might be an odd thing to say about such a young one, but you know what you are going to get from the Rockingham Ranch owned California-bred. He’s already made seven career starts, and his record of five wins and two seconds is dazzling. He came out running, winning nicely in his career debut, and has not really slowed down since. He scored against open company in the Santa Anita Juvenile Stakes for trainer Peter Miller in his second start. Interestingly, his only two career defeats both came at Del Mar when he finished second in the Graduation Stakes and I’m Smokin Stakes this summer. He seems to have only improved since that two-race losing streak, though.
On Breeders’ Cup Saturday, I saw him in person, and although he won by only three-quarters of a length in the Golden State Juvenile, there could be little doubt as to who was the class of the race. Kent Desormeaux rode him as confidently as could be, always having his competition measured in the seven furlong stakes race. The easy victory, two weeks ago, was his third straight stakes win, and his fourth overall. Whether the son of Harbor the Gold moves forward in distance and class to join the 2017 Kentucky Derby trail remains to be seen, but clearly he is a very good two-year-old.
Mastery, on the other hand, is a whole different ballgame. As they say, the son of Candy Ride could be any kind, in fact, he is currently #6 on my Kentucky Derby Rankings. A member of the powerful Bob Baffert barn, the buzz has been high on this one since the get-go. Unveiled for his debut on October 22 at Santa Anita, the $425,000 yearling purchase was pounded down to odds of 3-10. He lived up to the advance billing against a field of seven other maidens.
Looking like a winner every step, he took over the race early and widened his advantage to the wire. Finishing the six panels in 1:09.56, in seemingly effortless style, he was 4 ¼-lengths ahead of the second-place finisher, with that one more than nine lengths clear of third. It has been probably the most talked about maiden win in California the past few months, for a horse that Baffert seems to be very high on.
As good as he someday may be, he is probably going to have to run a big race to defeat California Diamond. Often talent wins out in these meetings. With only one race under his belt, though, and going against a seasoned stakes winner, who has already run seven times, Mastery will need to flash a good deal of the talent, which he is believed to possess, to win on Saturday. The Bob Hope promises to be a very intriguing match-up indeed.
Having said all that, wouldn’t it just go figure for one of the other three juveniles in the race (Ann Arbor Eddie, Bernin Sensation, or Oopper Wallah) to take home first money? That’s racing!