Bing Crosby Season | Horse Racing Free Tips

Motion Sends Single Soul In Pursuit Of Red Carpet Victory At Del Mar

Maryland-based trainer H. Graham Motion won the 2015 running of the Red Carpet Stakes with Rusty Slipper. Motion's assistant Alice Clapham, who has traveled with his horses to Del Mar Thoroughbred Club in Del Mar, Calif., since 2009 as part of worldwide assignments, was here to do the preparation work and saddling.

That combination, both natives of England, will be seeking a second score in the $100,000 Grade 3 Red Carpet, a 1 3/8-mile race for older fillies and mares on Thanksgiving Day. It's the first of seven graded stakes which make up the four-day Turf Festival to end the Bing Crosby Season.

Single Soul, a 3-year-old English-bred daughter of Dubawi, notched her second win in six career starts in a Belmont Park allowance race on October 22 and has been training since at Motion's facility in Fair Hill, Maryland. The most recent work was Saturday, five furlongs in 1:03 breezing.

Single Soul is scheduled to journey here on Tuesday. Clapham has been at Del Mar since before the Breeders' Cup earlier this month.

“I haven't heard anything about the work, but (Motion) must have been happy with it or he wouldn't have entered her,” Clapham said this morning. “I've been around her before and she's a really sweet filly. She hasn't traveled before but she seems quite sensible, so you'd think she will be OK with it.”

Single Soul had a forgettable debut for trainer Chad Brown on a yielding surface at Belmont a year ago. In five starts for Motion, she has never been off the board, notching a maiden win at Belmont Park in June and the 1 1/8-mile allowance there as an odds-on favorite in a field of six last month.

The Red Carpet will be her first race at the stakes level.

“We think she'll like the longer distance and we know she likes firmer turf,” Clapham said. “You can't really get that in New York right now, so this looks like a nice spot. Graham is sending out some for other races as well, so it kind of works out.”

A field of five was entered Saturday for the Red Carpet. From the rail out with riders in parentheses: England's Rose (Victor Espinoza); Luck (Flavien Prat); Neige Blanche (Juan Hernandez); Single Soul (Joe Bravo), and Nicest (Umberto Rispoli).

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Del Mar Prepares For Turf Festival To Close Out Bing Crosby Season

The close of entries and post position draw for Del Mar's Thanksgiving Day card that includes the $100,000 Grade 3 Red Carpet Stakes is set for Satuday afternoon. On Sunday, similar procedures will be conducted for the Friday program with the $250,000 G2 Hollywood Turf Cup at the Del Mar, Calif., racetrack.

So begins the staging process for the four-day, seven-stakes Turf Festival that will wrap up the Bing Crosby Season at the track. And if the seven previous such closing stands of the fall meeting are any indication, the eager anticipation felt by horsemen and fans is more than justified.

A contingent of quality shippers from the east will arrive Monday or Tuesday in numbers that racing secretary David Jerkens expects will be similar to past years from the stables of trainers whose names top, or are highly stationed, on national lists.

Chad Brown has won nine Turf Festival races, with emphasis on the G1 events – Saturday's $400,000 Hollywood Derby and Sunday's $400,000 Matriarch – where he's notched three in each. He's expected to put seven or eight on the westbound plane, among them defending Matriarch champ Viadera. Brown has multiple graded stakes winner Public Sector and Sifting Sands nominated for the Hollywood Derby and Turf Cup nominee Rockemperor stabled at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, Calif., and available for the relatively short trip down the freeway.

Michael Stidham's Princess Grace, who shipped in to win the Yellow Ribbon in the summer and returned for a third-place finish as favorite in the G2 Goldikova during Breeders' Cup Week, has remained on the grounds and is nominated for the Matriarch. So has Goldikova runner-up Zofelle for trainer Brendan Walsh.

Trainer H. Graham Motion, who has notched Red Carpet, Jimmy Durante, and Seabiscuit Stakes wins in past Turf Festivals, has a handful of horses on-site and could bring in reinforcements considering his six stakes nominees. Ken McPeek has indicated he will be sending Camp Hope, a winner of two starts in October at Keeneland Race Course in Lexington, Ky., and Greg Sacco is sending It Can Be Done off a third-place finish, beaten two lengths by Public Sector in the Hill Prince on October 23 at Belmont Park in Elmont, N.Y.

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Turf Festival At Del Mar Attracts Number of East Coast Trainers

The nomination deadline is not until Thursday night for the seven stakes races from Thanksgiving Thursday to closing day on Sunday, November 28, unofficially known as the “Turf Festival” at Del Mar Thoroughbred Club in Del Mar, Calif.

And New York-based trainer Chad Brown, who has shipped in nine winners from his deep bench of grass runners in the past, hasn't been heard from yet.

But several other prominent Midwest- and East Coast-based conditioners have, leading to expectations in the racing office of quality and quantity invaders for the main events on the Bing Crosby Season's final four days.

A sneak peek, with horse names being withheld until close of entries:

Hollywood Turf Cup, Friday, November 26th, Grade 2, $250,000, 1 ½ miles (turf), 3-year-olds and up: Trainer Mike Maker has placed five in nomination for a race Brad Cox won last year with Arklow.

Hollywood Derby, Saturday, November 27th, Grade 1, $400,000, 1 1/8 miles (turf), 3-year-olds: Wesley Ward, Dallas Stewart, Ken McPeek, Maker (2), Jack Sisterson (2), Graham Motion, and Gregory Sacco have nominees. Brown has won it three times, sending out Annals of Time (2016), Raging Bull (2018), and Domestic Spending last year.

Seabiscuit Handicap, Saturday, November 27th, Grade 2, $250,000, 1 1/16 miles (turf), 3-year-olds and up: One horse from Japan is listed while Maker has submitted two names and Motion one. Phil D'Amato has carried the locally-based trainer banner to wins with Midnight Storm (2015), Hunt (2017), and Count Again (2020). Add Richard Baltas' win with Next Shares in 2019 and this has been a good Festival race for the home team.

Jimmy Durante Stakes, Saturday, November 27, Grade 3, $100,000, 1 mile (turf), 2-year-old fillies: Maker and Motion (2) have nominees for an event dominated by shippers over the years. Brown-trained Fluffy Socks won last year. Mike Stidham won the two years before that and George Weaver, Motion, and Mark Casse have also scored in the seven editions at Del Mar.

Cecil B. DeMille Stakes, Sunday, November 28, Grade 3, $100,000, 1 mile (turf), 2-year-olds: Motion has an early nominee in an event that has been good for locals. Smooth Like Strait won for Mike McCarthy in 2019 and Beer Can Man for Mark Glatt last year. Both horses ran during the recent Breeders' Cup Week here.

Matriarch Stakes, Sunday, November 28, Grade 1, $400,000, 1 mile (turf), older fillies and mares: Trainer Joe Sharp has two nominated and Stidham one for the climactic stakes race of the meeting. Brown has shipped in three winners in seven meetings, among them Viadera in 2020.

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Livingmybestlife Leads All The Way In Opening Day Seashell At Del Mar

Hronis Racing's Livingmybestlife took the lead right out the gate and simply wouldn't be caught Wednesday afternoon at Del Mar in the featured $103,750 Seashell Stakes as the seaside track opened its eight Bing Crosby Season with an eight-race card.

The winner, a 3-year-old daughter of The Big Beast trained by John Sadler, ran the mile on the main track in 1:36.53 under Juan Hernandez and picked up a winner's check for $62,250, pushing her bankroll to $209,970 after she reported home a length and a half the best. It was the fourth victory in seven career starts for the Florida-bred who was claimed for $50,000 by her current connections out of her first start at Oaklawn Park in Arkansas last April.

Finishing second was the 1/2 race favorite Moonlight d'Oro, owned by MyRacehorse or Spendthrift Farm, while Michael Rosemayer's Clockstrikestwelve ran third.

The opening card was the first of 13 that will be held over the course of the Del Mar session that goes forward to Sunday, November 28. Adding special spice to this edition of the “Crosby” is the 38th running of the Breeders' Cup Championships, which will be conducted here this Friday and Saturday with $31 million of purses and awards on the line.

Racing continues Thursday with another eight-race card with first post at 12:30 p.m.

JUAN HERNANDEZ (Livingmybestlife, winner) – “Yes, that was the plan – go to the front and see how far we could go. She likes to run that way. We had a Plan B in case someone did something crazy, but our first plan worked out fine. We weren't going that fast and she was comfortable. When we turned for home, she changed leads on her own and from there I was on a winner.”

JUAN LEYVA, assistant to John Sadler (Livingmybestlife, winner) “She got to break out front and do what she likes to do, which is cruise on the lead. She was comfortable the whole time and ran a great race. She's been nothing but good since we claimed her. At the three-eighths when I saw the favorite (Moonlight d'Oro) wasn't really pressing her and she was pulling away, I felt really good.”

FRACTIONS: :23.16 :46.38 1:10.78 1:23.63 1:36.53

The stakes win was the first of the meet and the first in the initial running of the Seashell. Jockey Hernandez now has 12 stakes wins at Del Mar.

The stakes win was the first of the meet and the first in the initial running of the Seashell. Trainer Sadler now has 81 stakes wins at Del Mar, second most of all time.

The winning owners are Kosta and Pete Hronis of Delano, CA.

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