DEL MAR : Timber Country Heads Field for Futurity

The big stakes races for 2-year-olds are all about wishes and dreams, and today’s $250,000 Del Mar Futurity is no exception.

The Futurity is the traditional curtain call of this 43-day meeting, a seven-furlong look at what is to come. The trainers and owners come into this one with a variety of sentiments.

Trainer Ron McAnally, for example, does not know if his glass is half empty or half full. He has On Target, winner of his only start, but he wishes Mr Purple, also unbeaten, had not fallen through the cracks in the nominating process.

“He hadn’t even run yet when nominations were due,” McAnally said. “But both Mr Purple and On Target have been training identically. One would go out and run seven-eighths in 25 and 2 (1:25 2/5th) and the other would go out and run seven-eighths in 25 and 2.”

The Lukas barn has the probable favorite, Balboa Stakes winner Timber Country, but trainer Wayne Lukas would like to see this race run at a mile around two turns, as it was until 1993. He wishes his colt had a little farther to run.

“He won his last time out and he’s trained well since,” said Jeff Lukas, his father’s assistant. “We feel he’ll be better when the distance is stretched, but he has to be tested against these horses.”

Whereas Lukas would like another furlong, the handlers of Desert Mirage and Supremo are looking for maybe another length. Both were defeated by Timber Country by less than that margin in the Balboa Stakes.

Then there’s Canadian invader A.J. Jett, winner of five in a row over a five-furlong track in Vancouver. His owner, Jim Whyte, hopes he did not waste $20,000 supplementing and shipping his $2,800 colt to California.

A.J. Jett represents the mystery element in a nine-horse field, Timber Country having defeated Houston Sunrise and Desert Pirate as well as Desert Mirage and Supremo in the Balboa. The others, Glittering Event and Strong Ally, are not stakes-tested, giving them an element of mystery as well.

However, the early-career measurement of Timber Country vs. Mr Purple will have to wait.

“Mr Purple is obviously very good,” Jeff Lukas said. “I’m sure they will have other opportunities.”