Omaha Beach (War Front) turned in his final piece of work for next Saturday's GI Santa Anita Sprint Championship Friday morning in Arcadia, drilling an eye-catching half-mile in :46.80. It was the fastest of 32 moves at the distance by over three seconds.
After breaking off at about the 4 1/2-furlong point, Omaha Beach galloped along outside of stablemate Magic Rate (Exchange Rate) before drawing on even terms at the three-eighths pole. With a pair of slower-moving workers to the inside of the track nearing the stretch, Omaha Beach was forced out into about the five path, but he leveled out beautifully once straightened away and finished full of run before galloping out strongly.
“Real sharp,” was the assessment of trainer Richard Mandella on the Fox Hill Farms runner, unraced since his victory in the GI Arkansas Derby this past April. “I had him going the half in :46 flat. He went five-eighths but it was more of a sharp half and kind of out in five-eighths. He went in company, but he caught four others that were in front of him.
“When he broke off, there was a bunch of them quite a ways in front of him and he caught all of them. He couldn't look better in my eyes.”
Scratched on the eve of the GI Kentucky Derby-for which he was the morning line favorite–with an entrapped epiglottis, Omaha Beach underwent a corrective procedure and returned to training in July. He missed potential appearances in the Shared Belief S. towards the end of the Del Mar meeting and the GIII Ack Ack S. before being rerouted to the Sprint Championship, where he is scheduled to face GII Amsterdam S. romper and GI H. Allen Jerkens S. third Shancelot (Shanghai Bobby).
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