Mo Forza looks to continue ascent

ARCADIA, Calif. – Mo Forza was a maiden race winner at the end of September and a multiple graded stakes winner by the end of November, a rapid ascension that has left the colt at the fore of California’s 3-year-old turf division.

The winning streak includes the Grade 2 Twilight Derby on Nov. 2 at Santa Anita and the Grade 1 Hollywood Derby on Nov. 30 at Del Mar. The next assignment is Saturday’s Grade 2 Mathis Brothers Mile for 3-year-olds on turf at Santa Anita.

Mo Forza will be a deserving favorite.

The success is not a complete surprise to trainer Peter Miller, who watched Mo Forza finish second three times through the summer, including a nose loss in an allowance race with an $80,000 claiming option at 1 1/16 miles on Aug. 31 at Del Mar.

“I really think it’s just maturity,” Miller said in mid-December. “We always thought he was a good horse. He never put it together until his last three starts.

“I’d like to say it was some genius move. It wasn’t.”

What has worked well is Mo Forza’s ability to adapt to nearly any pace scenario by stalking the leaders before reaching contention in early stretch. In the Hollywood Derby at 1 1/8 miles, Mo Forza closed from third to win by three-quarters of a length over Neptune’s Storm, a three-time stakes winner this year who is a top contender in the $200,000 Mathis Brothers Mile.

“We like to stalk with him,” Miller said of Mo Forza. “We think he’s better with a target. He’s very adaptable. I think he could be second through fifth.”

There are several candidates in the field of 11 capable of ending Mo Forza’s winning streak. Neptune’s Storm has been in the first three in seven consecutive turf stakes for 3-year-olds since joining trainer Richard Baltas’s stable in April. Neptune’s Storm set the pace in the Hollywood Derby, but is likely to yield that role to Kingly, winner of the Grade 3 La Jolla Handicap at 1 1/16 miles at Del Mar, who has been fourth or fifth in three starts in Grade 2 turf stakes since early September.

“I don’t see anyone going with Kingly,” Baltas said. “He’s a run-off. Sometimes he gets it done.”

The Mathis Brothers Mile will be the graded stakes debut for Barristan the Bold, Bob and Jackie, Loafers Boy, Never

Easy, and Sash. Barristan the Bold and Sash arrived from England in the fall and were winners of minor handicaps earlier this year.

Bob and Jackie won the Let It Ride Stakes at a mile on turf on Nov. 9 at Del Mar in his first start since a win in the Eddie Logan Stakes for 2-year-olds here a year ago on Saturday. Trained by Baltas, Bob and Jackie is likely to stalk the pace. In the Let It Ride Stakes, he took the lead in early stretch and won by a nose over Proud Pedro, who also is entered in the Mathis Brothers Mile.

The Mathis Brothers Mile marks the first mount in an American stakes for Umberto Rispoli, who will ride Originaire. Rispoli recently relocated from Hong Kong.