Santa Anita Sprint Championship S.

Omaha Beach may have missed a start in the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve, but a month away from the Breeders’ Cup at Santa Anita Park he looks on course for one of its championship races.

The morning-line favorite for the Derby, scratched from that race due to an entrapped epiglottis, made a sparkling return from a five-month layoff in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Sprint Championship Oct. 5 by catching free-running Shancelot in an exciting stretch battle.

As part of the Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series, the $300,000 Santa Anita Sprint Championship earned Omaha Beach an automatic berth in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint  Nov. 2 if his connections opt for that race. The Big Ass Fans Dirt Mile is also under consideration.

The six-furlong Santa Anita Sprint Championship confirmed what Omaha Beach’s Hall of Fame trainer, Richard Mandella, long believed: his horse is naturally quick. Although his prior success before Saturday had come in longer races, memorably in winning the Grade 2 Rebel Stakes and Grade 1 Arkansas Derby in routes this spring at Oaklawn Park, it was clear from the break Saturday that the colt could sprint.

Jockey Mike Smith settled him a couple of lengths off the pace of Shancelot as he sped away early with quarter-mile splits of :21.87 and :44.38. Traveling smoothly, Omaha Beach put himself in contention coming into the stretch. Then Smith sent him up along the inside to go after the leader.

Though Shancelot tried his best to repel the winner, keeping him at bay for much of the stretch, he did not have enough to withstand him in the race’s final 50 yards.

“He broke extremely well, almost too well,” said Smith. “He kind of slipped a little leaving there, but man, he settled right in behind them really nice and he was loaded coming off that turn. Mr. Mandella really had him ready today. His last work was brilliant and he ran the way he worked.”

Even coming off a promising breeze, there was much to overcome. Omaha Beach needed surgery to correct his entrapped epiglottis, and then missed a couple preps over longer distance due to minor physical and training setbacks. This meant Mandella had little time to specifically prepare him for a race as short as the Santa Anita Sprint Championship, a six-furlong dance he completed in 1:08.79. He paid $7.20.

“I took two weeks to make a sprinter out of him. It isn’t like we practiced this a lot,” Mandella said. “But the really good horses can adapt to whatever you ask them.”

Owned by Rick Porter’s Fox Hill Farm, Omaha Beach has a record of four wins, three seconds, and one third from eight starts and earnings of more than $1.3 million. He is a 3-year-old son of War Front out of the Seeking the Gold mare Charming, making him a half-brother to champion 2-year-old filly Take Charge Brandi. He was bred in Kentucky by the Charming Syndicate.

Omaha Beach was not the only horse to show his quality Saturday. Shancelot fought tenaciously, finishing 2 1/2 lengths in front of third-place Flagstaff.  Winner of the Grade 2 Amsterdam Stakes at Saratoga Race Course this summer, the Shanghai Bobby colt seems a leading Breeders’ Cup Sprint contender.