By Emily Shields
The $75,000 Lure Stakes highlight’s Oak Tree’s Sunday card. A classy field of eleven will go to the post, led by favored Global Hunter (Arg), a five-year-old son of Jade Hunter who has five wins in nineteen starts. He exits six straight graded races in this country, where he has performed admirably for trainer A C Avila, often finishing in the money. He boasts the highest overall CASE rating in the field.
Towards the outside post is Rebellion (GB), who earned a 95 in Stride Quality in his last start and continuously produces high numbers. However, Rebellion’s best races come at distances shorter than a mile, he seems to prefer seven furlongs or less. High percentage jockey Rafael Bejarano has the call for trainer Graham Motion.
Lang Field and Vauquelin are both 5 – 1 on the morning line, and they both offer a little bit of value if Global Hunter fails to perform. Lang Field has earned over $470,000 for trainer Art Sherman, and will be partnered again by regular rider Jon Court. He won a Grade 1 race at Hollywood Park last fall, but since then has only found the winner’s circle once, in an All Weather race going a sixteenth of a mile longer than is required here. Lang Field’s current CASE numbers are hovering below their peak from last fall.
Vauquelin (Ire) earned the highest Endurance rating in the field by far, and also holds the highest Coordination score. All three wins of his wins have come in 1 mile turf events. Trainer Kathy Walsh and hot jockey Joel Rosario partner here, with the most discouraging note about Vauquelin being that he is coming off a bit of a layoff and may need the race.
Trainer Richard Mandella should never be ignored, and his Matto Mondo has four wins in seven starts, including a Chilean Grade 1 at the distance. Although he has only raced once since arriving from South America, Matto Mondo lost a shoe in that race, causing him to drop back suddenly and earn poor numbers. At 10 – 1 morning line, Matto Mondo looks to be an interesting play.
A complete mystery is Men’s Magazine, a four-year-old colt who is actually undefeated in three starts, but has not raced since September of 2006. Trainer Ron McAnally specializes in foreign runners, and this horse was based in Milan before his move to America. His workouts over the last five weeks are solid and somewhat encouraging, but he may need a start or two off the layoff.
