Officer Commands Attention

In mid-afternoon, Point Given made his last racetrack appearance, parading before Wednesday’s closing-day crowd at Del Mar and reminding owner Ahmed Salman and trainer Bob Baffert one more time of what they’ll be missing.

Coming out of his record fourth consecutive $1-million win, the Travers at Saratoga, Point Given suffered a strained left front tendon, was retired last week and will be sent off to the breeding shed early next year.

“This is the tough part of the game,” Baffert said. “It’s like snatching Tiger Woods off the PGA Tour. We’ve lost The Big Train, but we’ve got The Locomotive to look forward to.”

Point Given, who won nine races, including the Preakness and the Belmont Stakes, and earned $3.9 million during a 13-race career, leaves a tough act to follow, but Officer--The Locomotive--is one young colt that might be equal to the challenge. His fourth consecutive win, which came a couple of hours after Point Given had been led back to the barn, was a 11/2-length romp in the $250,000 Del Mar Futurity, with jockey Victor Espinoza saving his whip for another day.

The superlatives for the undefeated Officer began shortly after his first race, July 6 at Hollywood Park, and they continued Wednesday as he ran seven furlongs in 1:22 1/5 before 15,191 in earning his third win of the meet.

“He’s the best 2-year-old I’ve ever seen,” said Salman, who paid $700,000 for Officer at a March Barretts auction after the unraced colt had stunned clockers with a :20 3/5 seconds quarter-mile preview.

Officer, a California-bred son of Bertrando, the 1991 Del Mar Futurity winner, has faced only 17 other horses in his four races. Scratched from Wednesday’s race were Ecstatic, the other half of the Salman-Baffert entry, and the undefeated Expected Program, whose three-race streak is still intact. Kamsack finished second, 31/2 lengths ahead of Metatron, who lost the lead when the three-wide Officer cruised past leaving the quarter-pole. Striking Song, a $1.4-million yearling purchase, was fourth and Historic Speech finished last.

Officer earned $150,000, boosting his purse total to 340,200. With no show betting, he paid $2.20 and $2.10, accounting for a minus place pool--money the track had to put up to balance the payoffs--when $729,000 of the $777,000 was bet on Baffert’s colt.

Baffert owns the Futurity, having won Del Mar’s windup race six years in a row. “I’ve won this race with some nice horses,” Baffert said, “but none that did it as effortlessly as this one. He’s a smart horse. He’s got a great mind to go with his speed and that huge stride.”

The Breeders’ Cup route for many West Coast 2-year-olds runs through Santa Anita and the Norfolk Stakes, but Baffert said that Officer’s next race would be in the $500,000 Champagne at Belmont Park on Oct. 6. That’s the same track where the $1-million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile will be run Oct. 27.

Espinoza has ridden Officer in all four of his wins.

“I just stayed on, making sure I didn’t fall off,” he said. “He was much the best today, and I think he’ll always be much the best.”

Officer carried 121 pounds, from four to six pounds more than his four rivals. That’s the most weight for a Futurity winner since Tomy Lee, a future Derby winner, won with 122 pounds under Bill Shoemaker in 1958.

“This horse is a lot like Silver Charm,” Baffert said. “As a trainer, you love to see a horse win like this. If he stays together for a long time, we may have something special.”

Kamsack, ridden by Alex Solis, Del Mar’s 2001 riding champion, had run only once before, beating maidens here July 28.

“He’s a little green, but he ran pretty good,” Solis said. “At the three-eighths pole, I asked him and he opened up for me. Then that other horse [Officer] came up to me. My horse gave it one more little try, but we were running for second.”

Chris Paasch, who trains Kamsack, lauded Officer, but wasn’t discouraged.

“It looks like Baffert and the prince have another great horse on their hands,” Paasch said. “The baton’s been passed from Point Given to Officer. As for my colt, when the races get a little longer and he gets another race into him, I’d like to have another run at Officer.”

Metatron had faced Officer before, finishing a distant second in the Best Pal Stakes on Aug. 15.

“Man, that’s a horse,” Metatron’s jockey, David Flores, said of Officer. “What else is there to say?”

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Alex Solis finished with 36 wins, two more than Laffit Pincay, to wrap up his second Del Mar title. The first came in 1996 ....With 29 wins, Bob Baffert won his fifth consecutive training title. Farrell Jones, who won seven consecutive titles from 1960-66, holds the Del Mar record ....With a sixth consecutive Del Mar Futurity, Baffert is believed to have matched the California record for consecutive graded stakes wins. The late Charlie Whittingham won the Sunset Handicap at Hollywood Park six years in a row, starting in 1978 ....The 18-day Los Angeles County Fair meet opens Friday at Fairplex Park in Pomona.