CashCall Futurity

TRACK BANDIT PREVIEWS

Grade 1 winners LOOKIN AT LUCKY (Smart Strike) and NOBLE'S PROMISE (Cuvee)

will do battle in Saturday's $750,000 CashCall Futurity (G1) at Hollywood, and

the winner could earn championship honors with a tally. The Bob Baffert-trained

Lookin at Lucky is a short head from being unbeaten at this stage of his career

after a tough-trip second in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1). The impressive

colt has all the tools, including the best BRIS Speed ratings, and we don't see

him getting beat here. Garrett Gomez will ride the likely champion two-year-old.

THE PROGRAM (Harlan's Holiday), also trained by Baffert, has shown vast

improvement since stretching out in distance and is a logical top-three

candidate. While we love this colt as a future prospect into his sophomore

season, especially when he runs on dirt, he looks a cut below the top one. The

bay still rates as our pick to complete the exacta on talent alone. Victor

Espinoza getting aboard enhances the appeal.

Noble's Promise recorded a big third-place finish in the Juvenile for Ken

McPeek and rates as the main threat to our top pick. The bargain weanling

purchase ($10,000) has been consistently good throughout the year, winning three

of his last four after a decent second in his debut, and we like the fact that

the Kentucky-bred stayed in California to ready for this test. He also owns

excellent tactical speed, recording century-topping BRIS E2 numbers, and we

expect a fine showing from him. The addition of Robby Albarado can be viewed as

a positive rider switch.

BRADY BLUE EYES (Sky Mesa) has shown talent in all four career starts for

Mark Glatt and finally broke through with a maiden conquer in his first route

attempt. With an 81 BRIS Speed rating last time, the chestnut colt doesn't look

capable of matching the top contenders, but his consistency and further

improvement could yield him a placing at a big number.

WILDLEE SPECIAL (Offlee Wild) earned a solid 91 BRIS Speed figure for his

handy maiden win at Meadowlands last out and is the wildcard in here for the

ever-dangerous Richard Dutrow. The Kentucky-bred dark bay should be coming from

off the pace in a race that potentially has a lot of early zip, so we must

consider him for the bottom of the gimmicks under Alex Solis. MARCELLO

(Johannesburg), the third of the Baffert brigade, closed well to be second in

the grassy Generous S. (G3) last out but lacked prior synthetic form necessary

to challenge late in this one. We'll take a stand against.

Maiden MAKE MUSIC FOR ME (Bernstein) ran two big ones at Del Mar but has yet

to hit the board anywhere else, so we've lost confidence in the colt. SEATTLE

RULER (Roman Ruler) was ninth, at nearly 80-1, the last time he faced Lookin at

Lucky. We have no indication that the California-bred has improved much since

that showing.