Five set for Los Alamitos Futurity

Dec 15, 2022 James Scully/TwinSpires.com

Prominent winners include 1998 Kentucky Derby hero Real
Quiet and leading sire Into Mischief, and Saturday’s $200,000 Los Alamitos
Futurity (G2) serves as a Road to the Kentucky Derby series qualifier.

Five juveniles were entered, but Grade 3-placed Practical
Move and maiden Tall Boy are the only ones competing for the 20 combined
qualifying points being offered. The remaining three contestants — Arabian Lion,
Carmel Road, and Fort Bragg — are ineligible for points due to trainer Bob
Baffert being under suspension from Churchill Downs Inc.

Practical Move broke his maiden via disqualification at
Santa Anita two starts previously. By Practical Joke, the Tim Yakteen-trained
son will stretch back out to two turns following a third in
the seven-furlong Bob Hope (G3) at Del Mar on Nov. 20. Ramon Vazquez rides.

Tall Boy has placed in his last two outings, but he will
need to improve from a Brisnet Speed rating perspective to challenge.

Arabian Lion, a wire-to-wire debut maiden winner at Santa
Anita two back, is the probable favorite. Odds-on in both starts, the son of
2018 Kentucky Derby winner Justify exits a close second to unbeaten Giant
Mischief — who will run in Saturday’s Remington Springboard Mile for Brad Cox — in
a Nov. 4 allowance on the Breeders’ Cup Friday undercard.

Fort Bragg will remove blinkers following a wire-to-wire
maiden triumph at Santa Anita, the second consecutive race in which he crossed the finish line
first. The Tapit colt was placed second after interfering with Practical Move
two starts back. Carmel Road will try to rebound from an unplaced showing in
his first stakes appearance, the Breeders’ Futurity (G1) at Keeneland.