3-year-olds Hit the Highway at Golden Gate

With no shortage of sophomore prospects in the stable, trainer Doug O'Neill and Reddam Racing LLC have a major chance to mint another graded stakes winner when Frank Conversation (Quality Road) goes to post as the 2-1 morning line choice in Saturday's GIII El Camino Real Derby at Golden Gate Fields. The bay broke his maiden in a down-the-hill turf dash at Santa Anita in October and ran third behind Dressed in Hermes (Hat Trick {Jpn}) in the GIII Cecil B. DeMille S. at Del Mar Nov. 29 prior to closing out his juvenile campaign with a fifth-place run in the GI Los Alamitos Futurity back on dirt Dec. 19. Frank Conversation's primary advantage in this test, however, comes with the experience gained from a decisive 2 1/2-length score over the local synthetic surface in the Jan. 16 California Derby. The colt earned a career-top 91 Beyer Speed Figure and defeated three re-opposing rivals in that effort–one that stamps him clearly as the one to beat in the El Camino Real. His stiffest competition may come from Mr. Coker (Candy Ride {Arg}) and Jerry Hollendorfer, who has trained a record six winners of the race. Mr. Coker reported home a clear second behind subsequent 'TDN Rising Star' Danzing Candy (Twirling Candy) in his seven-furlong unveiling at Santa Anita Dec. 26 and recently graduated over 6 1/2 furlongs there Jan. 18. Graham Motion sends a pair of runners to Berkeley for this increasingly rare graded stakes opportunity over an all-weather surface. Team Valor International and Gary Barber's Kasseopia (GB) (Showcasing {GB}) was privately purchased following a dominant maiden score in England and traveled across the Atlantic to run second behind Riker (Include) in Woodbine's Grey S. Oct. 4. The chestnut adds Lasix for this first start in the Motion barn and perhaps signaled his readiness with a bullet five-panel drill in 1:00.90 at Palm Meadows Jan. 30. “We gave him an easy month after the race in Canada with the idea of taking him to Florida,” Motion said. “He's been breezing on the dirt at and he handled it well. Ideally, we'd like to run him in an allowance on the dirt, but there isn't anything until the end of the month and we want to get him going.” Meanwhile, stablemate Tusk (Tapit) recently returned from a brief layoff to run third in a grassy one-mile optional claimer in Arcadia and ships north for this first try at the nine-furlong distance. Klein, Lebherz or Meister's Marqula (Coast Guard) has demonstrated steady improvement in each of his last four starts, and looms as an intriguing longshot based on his consistency alone. Conditioned by Jeff Bonde–who won last year's renewal with Metaboss (Street Boss)–Marqula was last seen rallying late to complete the exacta behind Frank Conversation in the California Derby.