Calculator seeks to break maiden in Sham

Despite a pair of runner-up efforts against Grade 1 company, three-year-old

colt Calculator has yet to taste victory from four starts. That could change on

Saturday as the son of In Summation lines up against seven rivals in the Grade

3, $100,000 Sham Stakes at Santa Anita Park.

The one-mile contest is part of the Road to the Kentucky Derby series of

points races, and offers up 10-4-2-1 to the top four finishers.

Calculator already owns four points toward a starting berth in the Kentucky

Derby thanks to his second in the Grade 1 FrontRunner Stakes at Santa Anita on

September 27. That was the Peter Miller pupil's last start and his first try on

a conventional dirt surface. Prior to that the gray Florida-bred ran third and

fourth in a pair of Del Mar maidens before filling the second spot in the Grade

1 Del Mar Futurity on September 3.

Elvis Trujillo held the reins for Calculator's graded efforts and will be

back in the irons on Saturday.

The Sham features a well-matched group, but one who could offer up the

biggest challenge to Calculator is Rockinatten. That High Cotton gelding placed

in his first two races at Gulfstream Park last fall before posting an 8

3/4-length victory at Gulfstream Park West on October 26 to close out his

juvenile campaign. The bay also left trainer Ralph Nick's barn to join the

shedrow of Doug O'Neill, for whom he'll be making his debut on Saturday. Rafael

Bejarano has the call.

St. Joe Bay, Rock Shandy and Papacoolpapacool are the only other runners in

the Sham besides Calculator with prior graded experience. All three took part in

the Grade 3 Cecil B. DeMille Stakes over Del Mar's turf course on November 3.

Rock Shandy did best of all, finishing third by just a nose over fourth-placer

St. Joe Bay, while Papacoolpapacool came in sixth.

St. Joe Bay entered the DeMille off a third in the Grade 3 Bob Hope Stakes on

Del Mar's Polytrack, which followed a 10-length wire job to break his maiden at

Santa Anita. Papacoolpapacool boasted a third in the Oak Tree Juvenile Turf

Stakes on Del Mar's green two races before the DeMille.