As the 2021 racing season for up-and-coming two-year old Thoroughbreds continues to wind down, this Saturday’s Grade 2 Los Alamitos Futurity gives a select group of juveniles an excellent opportunity to improve their standing on the 2022 Kentucky Derby Trail.
The highlight of Saturday’s race card at Los Alamitos Race Course in Orange County, California covers 1 1/16 miles on the dirt track. This year’s Los Alamitos Futurity offers a total prize purse of $200,000 plus valuable Kentucky Derby qualifying points for the top four finishers on a 10-4- 2-1 basis.
The actual field for this year’s Los Alamitos Futurity is still coming together with Horse Racing Nation listing up to seven colts as probable. Going through that projected list, the following three colts top my list with the best chance to finish in the money on Saturday.
2021 Los Alamitos Futurity Picks
When: Saturday, December 11th 2021
Where: Los Alamitos Race Course
Win: Pinehurst
Bob Baffert has trained the last seven winning colts in this race. He happens to also be the trainer of my top pick to win this year’s event. I was high on Pinehurst heading into this year’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Del Mar. Despite the fade to sixth in a very strong field, I still see the son of Twirling Candy as a legitimate contender on the 2022 Kentucky Derby Trail.
His biggest victory this year as a two-year old was in the Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity. He covered the seven furlongs on dirt in that race in 1:23.55 past Finneus and American Xperiment. Saturday’s race provides an excellent chance at redemption before becoming a three-year old contender on Jan. 1.
Pinehurst started his racing career at Del Mar with a victory in a five-furlong Maiden Special Weight race on Aug. 1. His winning time was 0:58.18 to show some solid speed in that sprint.
Place: Enbarr
This is another Kentucky-bred two-year old trained by Baffert. The son of Brody’s Cause posted the first victory of his racing career by winning the ungraded Capote Stakes at Los Alamitos on Sept. 18. He covered the 6½ furlongs on dirt in 1:16.33 past Montebello and Olympic Legend.
Moving up in distance on Saturday will be a good test for a horse that has shown some excellence promise in his early career.
He went head-to-head against Pinehurst earlier this year and finished second in that five-furlong Maiden Special Weight race at Del Mar on Aug. 1. This MSW event was also this colt’s racing debut.
Show: Rhetoric
In a projected field that is filled with Baffert hopefuls, this two-year old gives him the best chance to pull off the sweep in this year’s Los Alamitos Futurity. Bred in Kentucky, he made his racing debut at Del Mar on Aug. 21. The son of Quality Road placed second in a Maiden Special Weight race covering 5½ furlongs on the dirt. Forbidden Kingdom was first in that race with a winning time of 1:04.04.
That has been his only race during his juvenile campaign. A win on Saturday would move Rhetoric way up the list of Kentucky Derby hopefuls. I am not sure he is up to the task given the Baffert’s top two colts in the projected field. However, he should keep things interesting by finishing in the money.
2021 Los Alamitos Futurity Update
Earlier this week, I came up with my top three picks for this Saturday’s Los Alamitos Futurity as part of my weekly coverage of horse racing for ScoresandStats.com. At the time, Horse Racing Nation had listed seven entries as probable.
My top choice was Pinehurst followed by Enbarr and Rhetoric. All three of these two-year old colts are trained by Bob Baffert. His horses have dominated this race, with a first place finish the past seven years in a row.
When the actual post positions were announced for the 2021 Los Alamitos Futurity, there were only five total entries in the field with none of these horses on the final list. That is rare but it does happen from time to time.
Forced to reformulate my top three colts to finish in the money, here are my new picks for this race:
Win: Olympic Legend
Place: Messier
Show: Durante
