Only four to face Instagrand in Best Pal

Instagrand ran to the pre-race buzz when making his career debut at Los Alamitos on June 29, blitzing maiden special weight rivals by a 10-length margin, and the exciting two-year-old colt is set to make his first stakes attempt in Saturday’s $200,000 Best Pal (G2) at Del Mar.

A steppingstone to the Del Mar Futurity (G1) on September 3, the 6-furlong Best Pal has been captured by Kentucky Derby winner Nyquist (2015) and champion two-year-old male Lookin at Lucky (2009) in the last decade.

Conditioned by Hall of Famer Jerry Hollendorfer and owned by Larry Best’s OXO Equine, Instagrand was purchased for $1.2 million out of the Fasig-Tipton Gulfstream two-year-old sale in February and the son of Into Mischief recorded multiple “bullet” workouts in advance of his first start. Instagrand just missed the track record in his first outing, completing 5-furlongs in :56, and registered a commendable 88 BRIS Speed rating for the wire-to-wire decision.

The bay colt will retain the services of Drayden Van Dyke.

Last-out maiden winners Owning and Sparky Ville are the main rivals.

Owning showed good speed from the start and strode away to a 2 ½-length score over maiden foes in his first start at Los Alamitos on July 8. From the first crop of Flashback, the gray colt cost $260,000 at the OBS April two-year-old sale and Simon Callaghan trains for Reddam Racing. Mario Gutierrez will be up.

Sparky Ville needed two attempts to pocket his first win, prevailing by a half-length as the favorite in a June 9 Santa Anita maiden special weight. Gary Stevens sticks with the Jeff Bonde-trained chestnut son of Candy Ride.

Mason Dixon opened his career with a rallying victory over high-priced maiden claiming rivals at Del Mar on July 21 and will be running late for Doug O’Neill. Flavien Prat has the call on the Union Rags colt. Synthesis, who has placed in two-of-three starts for Keith Desormeaux, completes the short field.