A trio of stakes races, headed by the 82nd edition of the Grade 1, $400,000 Hollywood Derby, will highlight a special racing card Saturday at Del Mar on the penultimate day of the sport for the 2022 Bing Crosby Season.
Also on the nine-race program will be the 32nd running of the Grade 3, $100,000 Jimmy Durante Stakes for 2-year-old fillies and the initial running of the $100,000 Stormy Liberal Stakes for older horses at five furlongs on the turf. The day's activities begin with a 12:30 p.m. first post.
The Hollywood Derby will be having its ninth presentation at Del Mar at its mile and one eighth distance on the lawn. The first local running of the feature in 2014 saw 3-year-old champion California Chrome win it handily and cement his bid to be Horse of the Year.
This time around there are 11 well-respected 3-year-olds with their eyes on the money and prestige the race offers, but there are no standouts in the lineup. Five eastern-based horses, including three out of the barn of conditioner H. Graham Motion, will try their luck in the turf test and it appears likely that one of them may go postward the favorite.
A pair of Hall of Fame conditioners – Claude “Shug” McGaughey III and Todd Pletcher – have runners entered that may draw the most mutuel action in Stuart Janney III's Celestial City (McGaughey) and Repole Stable, St. Elias Stable and Gainesway Stable's Wit (Pletcher). Both well-bred colts are stakes winners in the east and, naturally, have drawn top local riders — Ramon Vazquez on Celestial City and Flavien Prat on Wit.
The race will be run as the ninth and final event on the day's card.
Here is the full field for the Hollywood Derby in post position order with riders and morning line odds:
- Kretz Racing's Cabo Spirit (Joe Bravo, 5-1)
- Stone Farm's Script (Umberto Rispoli, 8-1)
- Celestial City (4-1);
- CYBT, Lantzman or Nentwig, et al's Handy Dandy (Florent Geroux, 8-1);
- Alice Bamford's St Anthony (Hector Berrios, 30-1);
- Feld Family Racing's Evan Harlan (Edwin Maldonado, 20-1);
- Muir Hut Stables' Spycatcher (Ryan Curatolo, 12-1);
- Doubledown Stables' War At Sea (Mike Smith, 6-1);
- Wit (7/2);
- Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners' Speaking Scout (Juan Hernandez, 6-1), and
- C R K Stable's Clutch Hitter (Victor Espinoza, 15-1).
The Jimmy Durante, formerly known as the Miesque Stakes when it was contested at Hollywood Park, has drawn a field of 12 and it, too, has its fair share of shippers set to try their luck locally.
Trainer Motion has brought in Madaket Stables, Jones or Little Red Feather's Pallotta Sisters from Delaware Park, conditioner Simon Callaghan will send out Nentwig or CYBT's Decorated My Life, a Irish filly making her U.S. bow and eastern kingpin Chad Brown has Alpha Delta Stables' Liguria in from New York for her first taste of stakes competition. The Jimmy Durante goes as Race 7 on the program.
Here is the full field for the Jimmy Durante in post position order with riders and morning line odds:
- Pallotta Sisters (Hernandez, 6-1);
- Haris Farms' Quickly Park It (Vazquez, 8-1);
- Decorate My Life (Bravo, 8-1);
- Glenn Sorgensein, WC Racing or Wonderland Racing Stables' Ami Please (Maldonado, 12-1);
- Gary Barber's Bizzy Gal (Geroux, 15-1);
- Sinnot Family Trust's Jordan (Ricardo Gonzalez, 20-1);
- Westlake Racing Stable's Showgirl Lynne B (David Lopez, 12-1);
- TOLO Thoroughbreds' Lollipop Gumdrop (Drayden Van Dyke, 20-1);
- CYBT, Aldabbagh or Nentwig, et al's Thebestisyettobe (Rispoli, 5-1);
- Brown, Klein or Lebherz's Sell the Dream (Abel Cedillo, 5-1);
- Liguria (Prat, 3-1), and
- Red Baron's Barn or Rancho Temescal's Ragtime Rose (Kyle Frey, 12-1).
Finally, the first-running of the Stormy Liberal has proven popular enough to lure nine sprinters for its turf dash, all of them trained locally. Among those of note in the field are Sterling Racing's Whatmakessammyrun, winner of the Grade 2 Eddie D Stakes on the downhill turf course at Santa Anita on October 1, and the double stakes winner Sumter, owned by Ramona and Perry Bass. The Stormy Liberal will be Race 5 on the afternoon.
Here is the full field for the Stormy Liberal in post position order with riders and morning line odds:
- Glenn Sorgenstein, WC Racing and Wonderland Racing Stables' Get Back Goldie (Maldonado, 15-1);
- MyRacehorse's Lane Way (Smith, 5/2);
- CJ Thoroughbreds, Hartman or Renfro's Rebel Posse (Rispoli, 12-1);
- Bernsen or Aldabbagh's Respect the Code (Frey, 20-1);
- Whatmakessammyrun (Bravo, 5-1);
- Benowitz Family Trust, CYBT or Nentwig's Turn On The Jets (Hernandez, 5-1);
- Koriner or Lyons' Hot Box (Gonzalez, 8-1);
- Jay or Julie Manoogian's Coulthard (Vazquez, 5-1), and
- Sumter (Prat, 4-1).
The post Five Eastern Shippers Line Up In Field Of 11 For Del Mar’s Hollywood Derby appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
