DEL MAR, Calif. – Seven stakes winners, three in open company, one in the biggest 2-year-old race every year at Los Alamitos. Yeah, the field for the $175,000 Real Good Deal Stakes for California-bred 3-year-olds on Friday at Del Mar is lit. “This has got to be the toughest Cal-bred race in the history of this place,” said Mike Puype, who sends out Straight Up G in the Real Good Deal. It’s not hyberbole. Of the nine 3-year-olds in the seven-furlong Real Good Deal, seven have won stakes races, the most significant the Grade 2 Los Alamitos Futurity annexed by Slow Down Andy. That Doug O’Neill-trained colt, runner-up in the Los Alamitos Derby in his last start, is one of the leading contenders. So too is Straight Up G – making his first start for Puype after failing to stay with Slow Down Andy in the Grade 3 Sunland Derby – and Smuggler’s Run, making his seventh start and now with his fourth different trainer, Jerry Hollendorfer. :: DRF's Del Mar headquarters – Stakes schedule, previews, recaps, past performances, and more But the race likely goes through a colt who hasn’t raced in more than a year, and is also racing for a new trainer. The unbeaten Big City Lights was the fastest gun in the West among precocious 2-year-olds in the spring of 2021 when trained by Luis Mendez, but he has not been seen since his runaway victory in the Fasig-Tipton Juvenile at Santa Anita in June 2021. Now with Richard Mandella, Big City Lights has an aggressive series of drills for his return, and has shown he can fire fresh. Seven furlongs is a testing distance for a returnee, but he drew well, landing the outside box. :: Visit the Del Mar Handicapping Store for Past Performances, Clocker Reports, Picks, Betting Strategies and more. “He was ready to run at the end of Santa Anita, but there really wasn’t a spot for him for which he was eligible, so we decided to wait for this,” said Gary Mandella – the son and assistant to Richard Mandella – who has overseen the barn the past week while Papa Mandella isolates with a mild case of COVID. Big City Lights is fast. He opened daylight leads in abbreviated sprints in his two starts last year and won those races by a combined 19 3/4 lengths. The meet’s leading rider, Juan Hernandez – aboard for both those victories – has the call. Slow Down Andy moves back to statebred competition after acquitting himself well in open company. He’s cutting back to a sprint and removing blinkers. He was second in his lone try at seven furlongs last year. Straight Up G moved to Puype in the aftermath of trainer Richard Baltas not being allowed to train or enter runners at Santa Anita and now Del Mar. He was a maiden winner sprinting here last fall, won twice in his next three starts in stakes company, but stopped in the Sunland Derby. Puype had the horse gelded two months ago. “He’s trained really well,” Puype said. The Real Good Deal is race 6 on an eight-race card that begins at 4 p.m. Pacific. It’s another meaty card, with average field size of 9.4 eligible runners per race.