Venneri Racing Inc. and Little Red Feather Racing's Midnight Storm (Pioneerof the Nile), the 7 3/4-length winner of the GIII Native Diver S. over the Del Mar main track Nov. 27, is set to take on 'TDN Rising Star' and GI Breeders' Cup Classic winner Arrogate (Unbridled's Song) in the Jan. 1 GII San Pasqual S. Trainer Phil D'Amato sees the San Pasqual as a can't-lose proposition.
“His race at Del Mar was pretty impressive and he's always trained really good on the dirt here at Santa Anita,” D'Amato said. “He broke his maiden on the dirt here and he came out of the Native Diver in great shape.
He added, “I think we've got nothing to lose. If we beat Arrogate, hey, that's a major feather in our cap. If you lose, you lost to Arrogate, so to me it's a good opportunity. My horse is doing really well and the San Pasqual is where we're going to go.”
Despite that recent success on the dirt, Midnight Storm had posted the bulk of his big-race wins on the turf, including this year's GI Shoemaker Mile S. at Santa Anita. Victorious in the GII Eddie Read S. and the GII Del Mar Mile H. over the summer, the 5-year-old led into the stretch of the GI Breeders' Cup Mile and held gamely late to be third behind Tourist (Tiznow) and Tepin (Bernstein).
Not a subscriber? Click here to sign up for the daily PDF or alerts.
