Blended Citizen, Baffert trio nominated to Los Alamitos Derby

Graded stakes winners Blended Citizen and Draft Pick are among the 11 3-year-olds nominated to the $150,000-guaranteed Los Alamitos Derby.

The Grade 3 race, which is scheduled for 1 1/8 miles, will be run for the fifth time at Los Alamitos on Saturday.

Owned by C R K Stable LLC and trained by Peter Eurton, Draft Pick, a Candy Ride colt out of the Arch mare Firehouse Red, has won two in a row after beginning his career with five defeats. The latest victory came when he upset Solomini in the Grade 3 Affirmed Stakes June 10 at Santa Anita.

Trained by Doug O’Neill for a partnership that includes Sayjay Racing LLC, Blended Citizen is a double Grade 3 winner, having captured the Jeff Ruby Steaks over the synthetic surface at Turfway Park March 17 and the Peter Pan May 12 at Belmont Park.

If the son of Proud Citizen and the Langfuhr mare Langara Lass competes Saturday, he will be making his first start since finishing far back in the Belmont Stakes June 9.

O’Neill also nominated Blame the Rider, second behind the talented River Boyne in the Rainbow Stakes on turf June 16, and King Cause, who was fifth in the Affirmed.

Eurton also nominated Dark Vader, who returns from New York after finishing a close third in the Easy Goer on the Belmont Stakes undercard.

Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert, who won the 2017 Los Alamitos Derby with eventual 3-year-old champion West Coast, nominated Ax Man, McKale and Once On Whiskey.

Owned by breeders Patti and Hal Earnhardt III, Ax Man, a son of Misremembered and the Flying Chevron mare Shameful, disappointed as the 1-2 favorite in the Grade 3 Matt Winn June 16 at Churchill Downs, but did win the Sir Barton by nearly seven lengths over a sloppy surface on the Preakness undercard May 19.

The other Derby nominees are Afleet Ascent, Axelrod and Mongolian Groom.

Entries for the Los Alamitos Derby will be taken Wednesday, July 11.