OMAHA BEACH

Fox Hill Farm's Omaha Beach turned in a bullet five-furlong work Aug. 4 at Del Mar as the 3-year-old War Front  colt continued preparations toward his first race back after throat surgery.

Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith, who won the Aug. 3 Whitney Stakes (G1) aboard McKinzie at Saratoga Race Course a day earlier, was back in Southern California to ride Omaha Beach for the first time since before the the colt was scratched from the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1) with an entrapped epiglottis.


Trainer Richard Mandella was on hand for the work.

"He worked with his stablemate Magical Kiss and gave her about a six-length head start and was about eight in front when he came by (the finish line), looking pretty good," Mandella said. "Went :59 and change and galloped out (to six furlongs) in 1:12 and change, and he just couldn't look any better."

Omaha Beach was clocked in :59 4/5 on the main track, the fastest of 75 works at the distance.

"It was pretty impressive what he did this morning," Smith said. "First major work back with a track that's playing on the slower side, a little deeper out here—he handled it like it was nothing."

Fox Hill Farm's Rick Porter was also excited to have his star colt back and working strong.

"Everybody's extremely happy," Porter said. "Mike couldn't be happier, Mandella couldn't be, and I couldn't be."


Smith said he was excited to ride the colt again to see whether he felt the same as he did in the spring. The workout confirmed Omaha Beach hasn't lost a step.

"The company had about five lengths on me," Smith said. "We hit the turn and he switched lanes and he just gobbled it up like in two jumps, like it was nothing, just opened on up."

The $100,000 Shared Belief Stakes, a one-mile event for 3-year-olds at Del Mar Aug. 25, is expected to be Omaha Beach's first start back.

Omaha Beach last ran in the April 13 Arkansas Derby (G1) at Oaklawn Park. That victory earned him morning-line favoritism for the May 4 Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs, but he was scratched three days before the race.

The dark bay/brown colt had minor throat surgery May 3 at Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital in Central Kentucky before recovering at nearby WinStar Farm.

"It's obvious that he's come back his old self," Porter said, "or better than his old self."

Adequan
Sunday's work was Omaha Beach's third since returning to the work tab July 23 with a bullet three furlongs in :36 3/5. He followed that with a half-mile in :49 1/5 July 29.

"He's looking like he did last spring now," Mandella said. "He's starting to come back to that and is almost there, pretty close."

Porter said the seven-furlong H. Allen Jerkens Memorial Stakes Presented by Runhappy (G1) Aug. 24 at Saratoga Race Course was also considered as a comeback spot, but connections opted to stay home.

"We were seriously thinking about going to the old King's Bishop, the Allen Jerkens, which is the day of the Travers," Porter said. "But then we started thinking about the travel and his first race back after all this, and we said, 'You know, who cares? Let's just get a race into him. We're not trying to impress anybody.'"

If all goes well for the Shared Belief Stakes, Porter said Omaha Beach could head to the Sept. 21 Pennsylvania Derby (G1) at Parx Racing, run at 1 1/8 miles, before stretching out to 1 1/4 miles for the Nov. 2 Breeders' Cup Classic (G1) at Santa Anita Park.

Omaha Beach's latest work was a step in the right direction to meet those goals.

"I was coming back and Mr. Mandella had a smile on his face from ear to ear," Smith said, "so I knew we did really well."