Shah’ Me the Money

TDN Rising Star Dortmund (Big Brown) can complete a fairy tale season for owner Kaleem Shah and is expected to be a prohibitive favorite in a short field of five juvenile males in Saturday’s GI Los Alamitos Futurity, being contested for the first time at the Orange County oval after 33 renewals at the now-shuttered Hollywood Park from 1981 through 2013. 

The final running of the Futurity at the Inglewood track was won in spectacular fashion by Shared Belief (Candy Ride {Arg}), and Dortmund’s career is–at least for now–on a similar trajectory. The strapping chestnut, a $140,000 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic juvenile acquisition, debuted the day after fellow Shah colorbearer and TDN Rising Star Bayern (Offlee Wild) took the GI Breeders’ Cup Classic and bounded home by nearly five lengths before stretching out to Churchill’s one-turn mile for a sensational 7 3/4-length victory to secure Rising Star status Nov. 29. Anything approximating that effort should give trainer Bob Baffert a seventh victory in the event. 

Trainer D. Wayne Lukas won the inaugural Futurity with Stalwart and added three more before the turn of the century, most recently with Tactical Cat (Storm Cat) in 1998. The Hall of Famer will send out Zayat Stables’ Mr. Z (Malibu Moon) one week after landing the GI Starlet S. with champion-elect Take Charge Brandi (Giant’s Causeway).