Sadler scheduled to send out Infobedad and Hard Aces in Cougar II
Week One of the meeting ended pretty well for stakes horses from the John Sadler barn and Hronis LLC ownership with Accelerate’s upset of Arrogate.
Week Two shows great potential from the start as Sadler and his major clients are scheduled to send out Infobedad and Hard Aces in a field of seven for Wednesday’s featured Grade III $100,000 Cougar II Handicap.
“Hard Aces won it last year, so he’s back to defend and Infobedad is kind of a distance specialist,” Sadler said Sunday morning.
The Cougar II is a marathon 1 ½ miles on the main track. Hard Aces covered the distance in 2:30.40 last year, leading wire-to-wire under Santiago Gonzalez in posting a half-length victory over Quick Casablanca.
Hard Aces, a seven-year-old son of Hard Spun, has been a fixture at the graded stakes level on the Southern California circuit for the past three years and accumulated earnings of more than $1.2 million from 41 career starts.
The field, from the rail: Infobedad (Tyler Baze), Curlin Road (Flavien Prat), 2015 Cougar II winner Big John B (Rafael Bejarano), French Getaway (Kent Desormeaux), Noble Nick (William Antongeorgi III), Hard Aces (Santiago Gonzalez) and Giant Influence (Jamie Theriot).
BARRETTS PADDOCK SALE SCHEDULED WEDNESDAY
The sixth annual Barretts Paddock Sale at Del Mar of race-ready horses will be held Wednesday approximately 30 minutes after the last race on the program.
The catalog, available on line, lists 17 horses of racing age and 25 two-year-olds that will go into the sales ring. Among the former group are stakes winner Aristocratic and Grade III winner Home Run Kitten`. Among the Sires to 2-year-olds are Animal Kingdom, Fort Larned, Sky Mesa, Smiling Tiger, Uncle Mo and Unusual Heat.
A training preview will be conducted on Monday immediately after regular workouts end at 10 a.m.
CLOSERS – Chantal Sutherland and David Flores notched initial victories of the meeting in the first two races on Saturday. Sutherland guided Giro Candito ($9.00), the horse that provided her 1,000th career win in May, home in the first. Flores, making a Southern California riding comeback at 49 after being away since 2014, won with Iron Rob ($21.80) in the second…Selected works from 195 on dirt and 20 on turf officially timed Sunday morning: Dirt – Gormley (5f, 1:03.00), Majestic Heat (5f, 1:00), Stellar Wind (:59.60), Stormin Monarcho (6f, 1:12.60); Turf – A Red Tie Day (5f, 1:03.40).
Source: Del Mar Thoroughbred Club