With the name comes built-in hype. Coach Prime, the electrifying winner of a maiden race at Del Mar last month, will have his stakes debut in Saturday’s Grade 2 Los Alamitos Futurity, very much at the center of the $200,000 race for 2-year-olds at 1 1/16 miles. Coach Prime is one of three runners in the six-horse field trained by Hall of Famer Bob Baffert, who has won the Los Alamitos Futurity seven of the last nine years. Baffert also starts Wine Me Up, who was second in the Grade 1 American Pharoah Stakes at Santa Anita in October, and the maiden race winner Wynstock. The other entrants are Ace of Clubs (trained by Doug O’Neill), Moonlit Sonata (Tim Yakteen), and Stronghold (Phil D’Amato). Yakteen cautioned in the middle of the week that Moonlit Sonata is not a definite starter. Coach Prime, who races for Amr Zedan, is the nickname of Deion Sanders, the former NFL star and television commentator and current head coach at the University of Colorado. The Buffaloes won their first three games this year, grabbing national attention, before fading against tougher rivals, eventually skidding to a 4-7 record. If Coach Prime, the colt, wins a few races in coming months, the hype surrounding his chances in the Triple Crown will extend to a greater sports audience as the winter of 2024 turns to spring. The colt, by Quality Road, was purchased for $1.7 million at Keeneland in 2022. On Nov. 10, Coach Prime deserved ample attention for his win in a one-mile race. He closed from sixth in a field of 10 through the final quarter-mile to prevail by 7 1/4 lengths under jockey Flavien Prat, who has the mount Saturday. The easy win was a reverse of Coach Prime’s debut, a third-place finish in a maiden race at a mile on turf on Oct. 7 at Santa Anita. Baffert said he was looking for a two-turn race. “I gave him a race,” Baffert said of the loss. “I knew he wasn’t a sprinter.” The win on Nov. 10 proved to Baffert that Coach Prime had shown considerable progress from his first start to his second. “He handled everything well,” Baffert said. “He’s got a great mind and you can put him anywhere in a race. “The distance is not going to be an issue. Distance will be his friend.” :: Bet the races with a $200 First Deposit Match + FREE All Access PPs! Join DRF Bets. The Los Alamitos Futurity should be run at a good pace. Wynstock won his debut at a mile by leading throughout a maiden race on Oct. 15 at Santa Anita in a 13-1 upset. Wynstock, owned by Los Alamitos track owner Ed Allred and track vice president Jack Liebau, was fourth and fifth in sprints in his first two starts. “He was a horse that we thought would win every time we ran him,” Baffert said. “He wanted more distance. He has speed and he needs to be out there running.” Stronghold, second by 8 3/4 lengths in the Grade 3 Bob Hope Stakes at seven furlongs on Nov. 19 at Del Mar, and Ace of Clubs, fifth in the Qatar Golden Mile on turf Nov. 3 at Santa Anita, also can race near the front. Stronghold closed from fourth to win a maiden race at a mile around one turn Oct. 1 at Churchill Downs in his second start. Stronghold worked five furlongs in 59 seconds last Sunday at Los Alamitos, clinching his participation in the Los Alamitos Futurity. “We’ve wanted to try this horse around two turns,” D’Amato said. “I liked the way he breezed. If he runs like he breezed, I think he’s got a good chance to be in the money.” Wine Me Up, who starts from the outside post in the small field, will start in his third consecutive stakes in the Los Alamitos Futurity. After losing to stablemate Muth in the American Pharoah Stakes at 1 1/16 miles on Oct. 7, Wine Me Up was eighth of nine in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at 1 1/16 miles on Nov. 3 at Santa Anita, fading on the final turn. “I think he got behind horses and had never been in that situation,” Baffert said. “He didn’t handle the kickback as well. He didn’t run his race.” Against a smaller field from an outside post, Wine Me Up may be kept in the clear in the Los Alamitos Futurity. The Los Alamitos Futurity is the final graded stakes of the two-week Los Alamitos December meeting that ends Sunday. Santa Anita opens its winter-spring meeting on Dec. 26. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.