Dr. Schivel Hoping To Put Freeze On Baffert’s Grip On Del Mar Futurity

Six young horses will run seven furlongs Monday in the 73rd edition of the shore oval's annual closer – the Runhappy Del Mar Futurity. The race will carry a purse of $250,000 and a Grade 1 ranking. And as it has many times before, it also likely will point out the winner for much bigger and better things to come on down the line.

The morning line favorite for the juvenile headliner will be Red Baron's Barn and Rancho Temescal's Dr. Schivel, a colt by Violence who was purchased privately by his current connections – father Jed and son Tim Cohen — in the past few weeks. The bay easily had won a straight maiden race at six furlongs at Del Mar on August 8 after running second and third in a pair of previous outings.

Following that win, the colt's then owners – and breeders – William Branch and Arnold Hill, heard an offer they couldn't refuse and ceded ownership to his current pair of owners. Dr. Schivel will race for trainer Luis Mendez once more in the Futurity, then shift to conditioner Mark Glatt's barn.

Here's the full field for the race from the rail out with riders and morning line odds: SF Racing, Starlight Racing or Madaket Stables' Spielberg (Abel Cedillo, 2-1); Brad Allshouse's Dyn O Mite (Victor Espinoza, 12-1); Drakos or Hanson's Weston (Drayden Van Dyke, 6-1); KMN Racing's Scooby (Umberto Rispoli, 12-1); Reddam Racing's Dixie's Two Stents (Mario Gutierrez, 3-1), and Dr. Schivel (8/5).

Spielberg, a $1,000,000 yearling purchase in Kentucky last September, is a son of Union Rags who has started only once, finishing second to Dr. Schivel in that one's winning heat here on August 8.  He has the distinct advantage, however, of racing out of the barn of conditioner Bob Baffert who has won the Del Mar Futurity a record 14 times.

Dixie's Two Stents was a weanling purchase for $60,000 in Kentucky in November of 2018. The son of Quality Road made his racing debut at Del Mar on August 1 and closed late to just miss in a five-furlong maiden special weight contest. He's worked well at the shore oval since.

Weston enters the fray with a two-for-two record, including a tally in the Grade 2 Best Pal Stakes at Del Mar on August 8. The Hit It a Bomb gelding trains out of the barn of part owner Ryan Hanson and – in contrast to some of his Monday adversaries – was a bargain $7,000 purchase as a yearling last year in Kentucky.

Scooby is trained by Jerry Hollendorfer. Though still a maiden after two starts, he's closed well in both of those outings.

Dyn O Mite has run second in all three of his tries. The son of Goldencents is conditioned by J. Keith Desormeaux.

Monday's finale means that there will be a mandatory payout in the track's popular Pick Six bet. It will be held on races 6 through 11.

The headliner will go as the 10th event on an 11-race card. First post Monday goes at 1 p.m.

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What’s In a Name? Sir Alfred James

6th-Churchill Downs, $101,097, Alw, 9-5, (NW1X), 3yo/up, 7f, 1:21.41, ft. SIR ALFRED JAMES (g, 4, Munnings–Super Phoebe, by Malabar Gold)
The Ashford stallion Munnings (by Speightstown out of La Comete) and his winning son SIR ALFRED JAMES (out of Super Phoebe) represent a welcome return to the old tradition of giving painters’ names to racehorses. Both father and son are obviously named after Suffolk-born Sir Alfred James Munnings (1878-1959), great classic painter of horses and World War I battle scenes. No one was fonder of this practice than the illustrious Federico Tesio, who borrowed painters’ names for many of his champions, like unbeaten legend Ribot (buried at Darby Dan Farm in Lexington), El Greco, Apelle, Botticelli, Toulouse Lautrec, and so on. The jury is still out on America’s foundation sire Nearco (another of Tesio’s jewels): some say he may have been a ceramist. In any case, horses have always fascinated painters from all ages in history. Smartly named Sir Alfred James would have made his namesake proud, with his tenacious come-from-behind run on Saturday at Churchill Downs in a quality six-furlong allowance race.

 

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Pony Club’s Shelley Mann Named New Executive Director of Secretariat Center

Shelley Mann, the former director of marketing and communications for the United States Pony Clubs, Inc., has been named the new executive director of Central Kentucky’s Secretariat Center. Founded in 2004 on the grounds of the Kentucky Horse Park, the Secretariat Center provides a highly visible location for off-track Thoroughbreds to be retrained and adopted.

“I am thrilled to be joining the Secretariat Center team,” said Mann. “The care and placement of retired racehorses and providing these equine athletes a second career is something I am deeply passionate about.”

Added Secretariat Center president Dr. Holly Schmitt: “[Mann] has dedicated much of her professional career to understanding equine health and to supporting community programs. Her experience and skills will be crucial to promoting this organization as the gold standard in Thoroughbred retraining.”

Mann will begin her new position Sept. 14.

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Kentucky Derby Delivers Most Watched 2020 Sporting Event Since Super Bowl LIV

NBC Sports' presentation of the rescheduled 146th Kentucky Derby on Saturday averaged a preliminary* Total Audience Delivery of 8.4 million viewers across NBC and NBC Sports Digital – ranking as the most-watched sporting event since Super Bowl LIV in February and the most-watched sporting event on Labor Day Weekend since 2017, based on fast national data from Nielsen and digital data from Adobe Analytics (*does not include Out of Home viewership, which is included in official national viewership as of Aug. 31, 2020, and will be available later this week).

In addition, 9.8 million viewers watched on NBC as Authentic crossed the finish line 1 1/4 lengths ahead of favorite Tiz the Law.

Immediately following the Kentucky Derby on NBC, Saturday night's Game 7 of the New York Islanders-Philadelphia Flyers Second Round series (a 4-0 Islanders' victory), averaged a preliminary TAD of 2.57 million viewers – marking the most-watched game of the 2020 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Additional Viewership Highlights:

  • The 2020 Kentucky Derby, with 8.3 million viewers on NBC (TV only), topped by 20% the most-watched sporting event on last year's Labor Day Weekend (6.9 million, Oregon-Auburn college football on ABC, Sat. 8/31/19).
  • The 2020 Kentucky Derby (6:37-7:23 p.m. ET) delivered a 4.8/14 fast national rating. Local market ratings for all 56 metered markets will be available Monday afternoon. (By comparison, the 2019 Kentucky Derby telecast registered a 10.9 overnight rating with a 25 audience share.)
  • NBC Sports Digital delivered an Average Minute Audience of 132,800 viewers for the 2020 Kentucky Derby to rank as NBC Sports' most-streamed horse racing event ever.

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