Del Mar 2024: Baffert sends out another favorite in Best Pal

As is often the case in 2-year-old races at Del Mar, Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert is holding the strong hand. This time it is the 54th running of the Grade 3 Best Pal Stakes with the conditioner seemingly in the driver’s seat with a Curlin colt named Getaway Car for the Sunday feature.

Getaway Car, a $700,000 yearling purchase owned by the multi-partnered group headed by Gavin Murphy’s SF Racing as well as Jack and Laurie Wolf’s Starlight Racing, will break from the outside post in a short field of five in the six-furlong test that carries a purse of $150,000. The youngster has been hung a noteworthy 3-5 favorite.

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Getaway Car has run only once, but it was a dandy. He showed speed from the gate going five furlongs at Del Mar on opening day July 20 and never looked back, winning in the end by 3 1/2 lengths in good time. Del Mar’s leading rider Juan Hernández was aboard that day as he will be Sunday. He’s come back to work twice since and should be primed for another big effort.

White Sands, who was cross-entered by trainer Wesley Ward in the Sorrento (G3), skipped Saturday’s race and will take on the boys Sunday. She’ll have a few things going for her. The Into Mischief filly has run twice already and captured both in smart fashion. Her first go-round was at Belterra Park in Cincinnati, where she tow-roped a field of straight maidens by nearly 10 lengths May 25. She then came back six weeks later at Prairie Meadows in Iowa to outrun males by nearly 14 lengths in a little stakes race.

Kazushi Kimura has the call on the bay filly for the Best Pal.

The Best Pal goes as race 3 on Sunday’s 10-race program, meaning its post time will be at 5:58 p.m. EDT.