Giant Expectations taking on Catalina Cruiser in Pat O'Brien

Two years ago, Gary Stevens chose to ride Giant Expectations over stablemate Kobe’s Back in the Pat O’Brien Handicap and successfully directed the then 4-year-old colt to a 1 ½-length victory.

Stevens, of course, retired at the end of 2018 with an even 100 Del Mar stakes victories. But Peter Eurton-trained Giant Expectations, a New York-bred son of Frost Giant, is back for more, entered at Del Mar for the first time since 2017 as part of a field of seven in Saturday's Grade 2, $200,000 Pat O'Brien.

Giant Expectations has gone 0-for-8 in 2018 and 2019, making four starts each year and carrying five different jockeys. But Eurton, who again is running two horses in the O’Brien – Cool Bobby joins Giant Expectations – hopes that a return to the site, and race, of his biggest success will benefit the chestnut runner.

“He’s training well and he’s run some very productive races since he won it last time,” Eurton said Wednesday morning.

The most recent was a $200,000 mile event, The Commentator for New York-breds, at Belmont Park on May 27 in which he was a close second to Pat On the Back.

“He fell to his nose leaving the gate, grabbed both quarters, lost a lot of ground, went five wide around the turn and got beat an inch,” Eurton said. “He’s probably better at one-turn, seven-eighths than he is at a mile or around two turns. He likes this track, so we’ll see.”

The Pat O’Brien concludes the summer sprint stakes series that began with Cistron winning the six-furlong Bing Crosby (G1) on July 27. The Bing Crosby was a “Win and You’re In” qualifier for the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Sprint; the Pat O’Brien is a counterpart event for the $1 million Dirt Mile.

Catalina Cruiser breaks from the outside post position and should go favored in his Pat O'Brien defense. The son of Union Rags won Del Mar's San Diego Handicap (G2) in his last start.

The field from the rail: Lieutenant Dan (Abel Cedillo), Chief Cicatriz (Ruben Fuentes), Jalen Journey (Norberto Arroyo, Jr.), Giant Expectations (Drayden Van Dyke), Seven Trumpets  (Victor Espinoza), American Anthem (Rafael Bejarano) and Catalina Cruiser (Flavien Prat).