Frank Conversation set for big race in John Henry Turf Championship

Frank Conversation will be somewhat of an outsider in Sunday’s Grade II, $200,000 John Henry Turf Championship at 1 ¼ miles, but the son of Quality Road trained by Doug O’Neill for Reddam Racing has been known to light up the tote board in the past.

He captured the Grade II Twilight Derby at odds of nearly 37-1 on Santa Anita’s turf course last Nov. 4, but hasn’t won in six subsequent starts, finishing second twice and third in the Grade I Hollywood Derby, earning $472,7740 along the way.

“He’s a nice horse and he’s coming into this race in good form,” said O’Neill assistant Leandro Mora. “The nice thing about him is, he shows up for the big races. Hopefully, the John Henry will fit into that category for him.”

The John Henry, race seven of nine: Itsinthepost, Tyler Baze; Prime Attraction, Victor Espinoza; Frank Conversation, Mario Gutierrez; Chicago Style, Drayden Van Dyke; Dressed in Hermes, Tiago Pereira; Up With the Birds, Jaime Theriot; Inordinate, Corey Nakatani; Hunt, Flavien Prat; and Win the Space, Joe Talamo. 

FINISH LINES: Bob Baffert skipped the Zenyatta Stakes with nine-time winner Vale Dori, who had been training for the race but is now in a holding pattern after running second by a neck to champion Stellar Wind in the Grade I Clement L. Hirsch July 30. “She’s just chillin’ right now,” Baffert said of the five-year-old Argentine-bred mare, earner of more than $1.1 million . . . Baffert sent Mor Spirit, winner of the Grade I Metropolitan Handicap June 10, six furlongs Thursday in 1:13.40, handily from the gate . . . Jockey Martin Garcia, recovered from recent back issues, is 100 percent physically and looking forward to opening day at Santa Anita . . . Bargain claim Skye Diamonds, who worked three furlongs Wednesday on the training track in 38 seconds flat, will train up to the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint. “She performs well when she runs six weeks apart,” said Bill Spawr, who still holds multiple Grade I winner Exchange as his best claim . . . Retired Los Angeles Times racing reporter Bill Christine will be on hand Saturday to sign his new book entitled “Bill Hartack—The Bittersweet Life of a Hall of Fame Jockey.” Published by McFarland and available at Barnes & Noble, Christine’s book chronicles the life of the legendary Hartack, who along with Eddie Arcaro, won a record five Kentucky Derbies throughout his meteoric career. Christine will greet well wishers and sign copies of the book Saturday beginning at 10:30 a.m. outside Champions! Gifts & Apparel . . . Clocker Andy Harrington and Craig Bernick, President of Glen Hill Farm, will be Tom Quigley’s guests, Saturday and Sunday, respectively, 11:20 a.m., in the East Paddock Gardens . . . After a disappointing outing at Del Mar, trainer Eddie Truman expects a return to form from Armour Plate when the two-year-old son of Into Mischief runs for owner Peter Redekop in the $100,000 Zuma Beach Stakes at a mile on grass Columbus Day, Monday, Oct. 9. “He’s doing great;” Truman said. “We’re excited.” . . . Dangerfield, a three-year-old Into Mischief colt entered in Saturday’s sixth race by Doug O’Neill, is named for the late “no respect” comedian Rodney Dangerfield, who once said of his wife’s cooking, “I don’t think meat loaf should glow in the dark.”