Del Mar will present a stakes doubleheader Saturday with the 48th running of the Grade 2, $250,000 Eddie Read Stakes being one of the offerings and the 54th edition of the Grade 2, $200,000 San Clemente Stakes being the other.
The pair of black type, added-money affairs will highlight an 11-race card that has a first post of 2 p.m.
The Eddie Read, named for Del Mar's long-time publicity director, has drawn a field of seven solid older stakes aces, including Cannon Thoroughbred's Smooth Like Strait and LNJ Foxwoods' United. They'll run a mile and one-eighth on the Jimmy Durante Turf Course in Race 8 on the program.
Then the San Clemente, named for the Orange Country beach town just above the Marines' Camp Pendelton base north of the track, will go forth with a dozen 3-year-old fillies in the gate for a one-mile spin on the grass that is scheduled to be Race 10.
The Irish filly Going Global, a stakes winner of all four of her U.S. starts this year, appears a stout choice and surely the one to beat in the San Clemente, which serves as a key prep for the track's championship race for sophomore fillies – the Grade 1, $300,000 Del Mar Oaks at nine furlongs on Saturday, Aug. 21.
Here's the field for the Eddie Read with weights and riders: OXO Equine's Vintage Print (121, Adam Beschizza); United (121, Flavine Prat); Agave Racing Stable or Sam-Son Farm's Say the Word (123, Mike Smith); Agave Racing Stable or Sam-Son Farm's Count Again (121, Joe Bravo); Amerman Racing's Award Winner (123, Juan Hernandez); Smooth Like Strait (125, Umberto Rispoli), and Brinkerhoff or Grayson Jr.'s Restrainedvengence (121, Tyler Baze).
The San Clemente lineup looks like this: Perry and Ramona Bass' Pizzazz (120, Kyle Frey); Dubb, Gevertz or Nentwig, et al's Going Global (1232, Prat); Bernsen, Lambert or Hale's Founder's Day (118, Baze); Branham or Naify's Freedom Flyer (120, Victor Espinoza); Slam Dunk Racing or Platts' Tetragonal (120, Bravo); Strand Beach's Equilove (120, Ricky Gonzalez); Derrick Fisher's Jibber Jabber (118, Geovanni Franco); Roncelli Family Trust and Roney's Dramatizer (118, Edwin Maldonado); Kaleem Shah's Madone (123, Henandez); Schumer or Screnci's Karakatsie (118, Kent Desormeaux); SF Racing's Nimbostratus (120, Abel Cedillo), and Harris Farms' Closing Remarks (123, Rispoli).
Smooth Like Straight, trained by Mike McCarthy, comes into the Read off a front-running tally in the Grade 1 Shoemaker Mile at Santa Anita on May 31. The handy 4-year-old by sprint champion Midnight Lute is a seven-time winner who has banked $933,823 and could take a bunch of catching Saturday.
United has won eight races and more than $1.5 million over a 19-race career thus far. The 6-year-old gelding by Giant's Causeway won the Eddie Read last year.
In the San Clemente, Going Global, a daughter of the Irish stallion Mehmas, won only one of four starts in her native land as a 2-year-old, but has done nothing but win with her shift stateside. She is conditioned by Phil D'Amato.
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