Majestic City Fires Futurity Bullet
Unbeaten Majestic City, winner of the Hollywood Juvenile at Hollywood Park, worked five furlongs in a bullet :59.00 under jockey David Flores on Thursday in preparation for the $250,000, Grade I Del Mar Futurity on the closing day of the meeting, Wednesday, September 7.
Majestic City broke off five lengths behind a workmate and finished about five in front.
“It was perfect,” Miller said. “He came home (last quarter) in :23 and it was just what we wanted. We were shooting for 59 (seconds) to a minute and he did it the right way. We’re ready.”
Flores, who has Futurity victories aboard Silver Charm (1996), Forest Camp (1999) and Icecoldbeeratreds (2002), concurred with Miller.
“It went very well, I was happy with it,” Flores said. “We worked him long last week, so this was just to top him off.” Majestic City worked 6 furlongs under Flores in a bullet 1:12.00 on Friday, August 26.
“He has natural speed; we’re trying to teach him to relax. He has the ability. I don’t know what the field is going to be like, but he’s ready,” Flores said.
Entries will close and post positions will be drawn for the Futurity, and the rest of the closing day card, on Saturday.
LOOKS LIKE A LONG FRIDAY FOR HARRINGTON
Mike Harrington, who is expected to work Best Pal Stakes winner and Del Mar Futurity candidate Creative Cause on Friday morning, will be back in the late afternoon to saddle Nijinsky’s Song in the featured $100,000 El Cajon Stakes.
Nijinsky’s Song, a 3-year-old son of Unbridled’s Song, won a 6-furlong
maiden event on the Polytrack in 1:09 3/5 on August 13. And while Harrington
doesn’t consider the El Cajon mile an ideal situation, it’s against age-group
peers over a track the colt owned by Heinz Steinmann has handled.
“It’s not the best race for him, but it’s the only race for him and we think he’s a pretty nice horse,” Harrington said. “It’s a big step, but I guess we’ll find out what we’ve got. The competition looks tough.”
Nijinsky’s Song made his racing debut on August 14 of last year at Del Mar, finishing third in a field of 10. A soft tissue injury sidelined him from then until August 13 of this year, when he came off the one-year layoff to score a 1 ¾-length victory as the 8-5 favorite against six rivals.
“That’s another reason why you’d rather not run him, but this (El Cajon) is the only place to run him here,” Harrington said.
A field of eight, after two scratches, is expected to go postward. It includes Bob Baffert-trained Uncle Sam, the 2-1 morning line favorite, the third-place finisher in the Grade II Swaps Stakes at Hollywood Park on July 9, and Great Warrior. The latter was entered in the Pacific Classic by trainer A.C. Avila before being scratched and entered in both the El Cajon and Sunday’s Del Mar Derby.