Babies are starting to learn how to walk around this time of the year and horse bettors that pay strict attention to this week's Best Pal Stakes may be able to get paid down the line.

Any winner of the stakes has some living up to do as Best Pal himself retired as the all-time leading California-bred earner.

He lived a fast and furious life and died at the age of 10 but he was 2nd in the Kentucky Derby, won the Santa Anita Handicap, the Pacific Classic, and the Hollywood Gold Cup on his way to banking over $5.6 million.

Generally, this race attracts a small and potentially talented field.

Last year Salute the Sarge came from a length and a half off the pace to win going away against only 3 rivals and the year before Principle Secret came from 4th four lengths back to win drawing off over 7 foes.

Just like in poker, you don't want to show your hand too early and this race is prep for the Del Mar Futurity on closing day so expect another short and sweet field.

The leader in the clubhouse and the one to beat will be Azul Leon. He will need some help on the front end as he is a stone-cold closer but this track has played fair this meet and many winners used the rally wide thing to get there.

Trained by Doug O'Neill, who is also pointing S.S. Stone to this race, Leon will retain the leading rider in Rafael Bejarano and he'll be flying in the final furlong.

The speedballs in the race figure to wing hard and those jets could include Captain Steel, recent winner Miguel's Mascot and possibly invaders Coronet of a Baron and My Dominick James.

Charlie's Moment will be in his 4th race in 8 weeks if he goes and that may be pushing the envelope.

Turbo Call only has a 2-furlong win on his resume and looms an outside but Florida-bred Kelly Leak has trained well here and has the right style to make some noise.

The Baron beat a Chicago field in clever fashion as the chalk while James parlayed a maiden win to a stakes score at Prairie Meadows.

If either of those runners shows at the beach, they will demand a legit look.

The race figures to unfold with a moderate pace going the 6 and a half furlongs. Though Del Mar has played fast as a surface this meet, would not expect the half mile split to be faster than a fat :45 and change.

This meet, it has seemed to be a trend that a runner that is pressed early has a hard time keeping up the image in the lane and that looks like the scenario that will materialize.

Logical longshot My Dominick James must be respected. His dam was a minor double winner, but she dropped a pair that loved to win races and won over $300,000 combined when accounting for 15 wins.

The reality of the race is likely that there will be only one standing.

Azul Leon has the blood to be a star. Out of a dam that won almost half a million, she is also kin to a runner who banked over $200,000 and her other foal to race won.

Look for Leon to settle, save ground early, and then blow them away at crunch time with Kelly Leak completing the exacta.