One indication of the improving popularity of the Bing Crosby meet at Del Mar is this year's lucrative, record-setting stakes schedule and the first of the 15 stakes races, the $75,000 Let It Ride Stakes, takes place opening day Friday. A field of nine 3-year olds will enter the starting gate for the one mile turf test.
Trainer Graham Motion has sent out a string of four horses for the opening weekend. The East Coast-based trainer has made a habit of dabbling a bit at Del Mar over the past few years. One of his horses will run in the Let It Ride. Script, a son of Algorithims, returned from an eight-month layoff and won an entry level allowance at Keeneland last out. He's a horse Motion has always been very high on.
“I thought he had the potential to be a Derby-type horse,” Motion says. “He just didn't pan out on the dirt and then he got sick in the spring with a low grade pneumonia. So we gave him the whole summer off at Stone Farm, brought him back and it was so gratifying to see him run so well at Keeneland in that allowance race.”
He was ridden by jockey John Velazquez that day and will be ridden by the veteran jockey again in the Friday feature. Velazquez, like his fellow New York-based rider, Flavien Prat, has moved his tack to Southern California for the fall and winter.
Handy Dandy is the most experienced of the group running in the Let It Ride. The son of Fury Kapcori has raced 12 times and finished in the money in nine of those starts. After clearing an entry level allowance at Del Mar this past summer he finished fourth in the G2 Twilight Derby at Santa Anita last month. He hails from the barn of Peter Miller, fresh off winning the trainers title at Santa Anita's fall meet.
“He's been a little bit unlucky,” Miller says of Handy Dandy. “He had a rough trip last time in the Twilight Derby and we're hoping we get a better trip and the horse can show what he can do.”
Jockey Juan Hernandez is back on board after riding Hawthorne Derby winner Speaking Scout for Motion in the Twilight Derby.
“Juan knows the horse very well,” Miller adds. “It wasn't necessarily Umberto's (Rispoli) fault last time. It was just circumstance. But Juan has won on the horse and ridden him plenty and so we felt Juan gave us our best chance to win.”
Trainer George Papaprodromou has brought two to the party. Time to Party was claimed from the Peter Miller barn last month after winning a claiming allowance at Santa Anita at the same distance as the Let It Ride. Papaprodromou will also run Law Abiding, a son of Jimmy Creed, who is stepping up into stakes company off of his maiden victory last out.
Spycatcher is another one to watch. The runner-up at 68-1 to Slow Down Andy in the G2 Del Mar Derby last summer is back for another run on the Jimmy Durante turf course. The son of Noble Mission has not raced since his Derby outing in September.
The Let It Ride Stakes is the seventh of eight races on the Friday opening day card. It's named after the popular 1989 movie starring Richard Dreyfus that has become a favorite among horse players.
Here's the field from the rail with jockeys and morning line: Clutch Hitter (Victor Espinoza, 6-1); Handy Dandy (7/2); Law Abiding (Mario Gutierrez, 20-1); Crazy Dreams (Abel Cedillo, 12-1); Script (3-1); St Anthony (Flavien Prat, 4-1); Time to Party (Joe Bravo, 12-1); Spycatcher (Ryan Curatolo, 7/2) and Degree of Risk (Drayden Van Dyke, 12-1).
The post Del Mar Kicks Off Crosby Meet With Let It Ride Stakes appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
