Bing Crosby Stakes | Horse Racing Free Tips

Dr. Schivel Earns Breeders’ Cup Sprint Berth With Hard-Fought Bing Crosby Triumph

Red Baron's Barn, Rancho Temescal, William Reeves and partners Dr. Schivel, a 3-year-old taking on older rivals, made the lead in midstretch, then hung extra tough late to capture the 76th running of the Grade 1 Bing Crosby Stakes by a neck Saturday at Del Mar racetrack in Del Mar, Calif.

The victory in the Breeders' Cup Challenge Series Win and You're In contest gave Dr. Schivel a fees-paid berth in this year's Breeders' Cup Sprint, to be run at Del Mar on Nov. 6.

The son of Kentucky sire Violence gave his jockey and trainer a unique double in the $301,500, six-furlong dash – back-to-back scores in the shore track's premier race for sprinters with 3-year-olds, something that's never happened before. The final time in the dash was 1:10.47.

Flavien Prat, Del Mar's leading rider, was aboard the colt for his fourth victory of the day. He now has 17 wins in the first nine days of racing and also a remarkable streak in the Crosby: he's won six of the last seven runnings of the race. Mark Glatt is the trainer of Dr. Schivel and he also was the conditioner of last year's winner, the then 3-year-old Collusion Illusion (who was entered and scratched in this year's Crosby).

Finishing second in the Crosby was Coolmore Stud, Madaket Stables or Starlight Racing, et al's Eight Rings, while running third was the 3-2 race favorite, Madaket Stables, Barber or Kagele's C Z Rocket.

Dr. Schivel, who was making only the sixth start of his career, scored his fourth victory and picked up a winner's check for $180,000 and increased his bankroll to $416,000. The bay youngster had won last year's Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity for former trainer Luis Mendez, then was put on the shelf for nine months before coming back to win an allowance race at Santa Anita in June.

Dr. Schivel paid $6.80, $4.00 and $2.60 across the board. Eight Rings returned $10.80 and $4.80, while C Z Rocket paid $2.40 to show.

In the track's Pick 6 Single Ticket Jackpot wager, there was a carryover for the seventh day in a row. The pool going into Sunday is now up to $566,809.

The Grade 1 Clement L. Hirsch heads Sunday's card. First post for the day is 2 p.m.

FLAVIEN PRAT (Dr. Schivel, winner) – “No special instructions; just ride. He broke well, then when we went across the gap, he grabbed the bit. He was running well, pretty much all the way around. He was game late. Good win.”

MARK GLATT (Dr. Schivel, winner) – “They went fast early, maybe not as fast as we thought. Flavien (Prat) rode him perfectly, gave him a good trip, and the outside post was a benefit. This is a real racehorse. He beat the olders today, and hopefully in November he'll be able to do it again. (Scratch of Collusion Illusion?) He grabbed a quarter training yesterday and he just wasn't perfect on it today. It probably would have been safe to run him but the ownership group and I thought it was best to err on the conservative side and have him run another day.”

:21.83 :44.67 :57.39 1:10.47

The stakes win was the sixth of the meeting for rider Prat and his sixth (of the last seven) in the Bing Crosby. He now has 66 stakes wins at Del Mar.

The stakes win was the first of the meeting for trainer Glatt, but his second in the Bing Crosby (Collusion Illusion, 2020). He now has 12 stakes wins at Del Mar.

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Beat Ray At Del Mar: Do You Believe In Luck?

Saturday's Bing Crosby Stakes at Del Mar is more than a Grade 1 race or a Win and You're In Breeders' Cup Challenge qualifier for the Sprint division when the world championships come to the seaside racetrack on Nov. 5-6.

The Crosby, named for the crooner who once owned Del Mar racetrack, is this week's Beat Ray Beach Boss event, where a guest handicapper takes his or her turn attempting to out-handicap me with a mythical $100 bankroll. So far, guests Scotty McKeever and Billy Koch have done very well, leaving me 0-for-2 and wondering if I'll ever find a winner.

British broadcaster Nick Luck, currently covering the Tokyo Olympic equestrian events for the BBC but well-known to American viewers of racing telecasts, joins host Michelle Yu and me this week to handicap the Crosby. While I'm relying on morning line favorite C Z Rocket to bail me out, Nick has done his due diligence on some of the other runners and come up with a pair of longshots he is backing.

It's not too late to sign up for the daily Beat Ray Everyday Beach Boss competition (sign up here) and qualify for the two VIP Breeders' Cup tickets awarded to the player with the largest bankroll at the end of the meet.

Watch the video below for Ray, Nick and Michelle's thoughts on this week's Bing Crosby.

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Glatt Goes Big Gunning For Back-To-Back Bings

Mark Glatt saddled Collusion Illusion and Law Abidin Citizen for the 2020 edition of the Bing Crosby Stakes and was rewarded with a 1-3 finish that provided him the first Grade 1 victory of his 16-year career as a Thoroughbred trainer.

And the resultant victory celebration was, as Glatt mildly puts it: “Kind of subdued, with no one around.

“We couldn't go out to dinner or anything, there weren't many restaurants even open, and we had to wake up early the next day.”

Blame COVID which, although racing went on, precluded crowds, winner's circle presentations or even close-contact celebrations by the connections of the victorious horses. So Glatt was relegated to socially distanced media interviews and loosely-posed pictures with family members and stable employees.

Not that it mattered all that much.

“A Grade 1 is a Grade 1, no matter where (or under what circumstances), you win,” Glatt said.

On Saturday, Glatt will be back for another Bing Crosby seeking the second Grade 1 score of his career. He entered the same two horses, Collusion Illusion and Law Abidin Citizen, from 2020 and one more, 3-year-old Dr. Schivel, to boot.

Late in the week he was still giving all three consideration. But Glatt indicated the most likely scenario would be that Collusion Illusion and Dr. Schivel would start and Law Abidin Citizen would be held out for another assignment.

Collusion Illusion and Law Abidin Citizen are both sons of Twirling Candy that Glatt picked out for clients from Kentucky sales.

“I was stabled next to John Sadler when Twirling Candy was running and just thought he was an amazing looking animal and certainly a very good racehorse,” Glatt said. “I thought that maybe when he went to stud I'd have an opportunity to pick up one or two of (Twirling Candy's progeny).”

He picked both Law Abidin Citizen and “Collusion” for a group based in his native state of Washington – Dan Agnew, Jerry Schneider, John Xitco and Dr. Rodney Orr.

In the 2020 Crosby, 6-year-old Law Abidin Citizen, ridden by Abel Cedillo, didn't wilt after being close to a fast early pace and held on for third as 3-year-old Collusion Illusion, given a heady ride by leading jockey Flavien Pratt, rallied along the rail in the final furlong to edge Lexitonian on the wire.

The horses are a year older. The riders are different. And there was not an ounce of nostalgia involved in Glatt's thoughts of doubling back to the cast of 2020.

“The race is different from one year to the next, the horses and the way they're coming into the race is different. That's what you base it on,” Glatt said.

Collusion Illusion earned an automatic berth into the $2 million Breeders' Cup Sprint via last year's Bing Crosby victory. A traffic-troubled 12th of 14 result in the BC Sprint at Keeneland in November was sandwiched between a second in the Santa Anita Sprint Championship in September and third in the Grade 1 Malibu in December.

Collusion Illusion's six-race 2020 campaign ended with earnings of $317,800, boosting his career total to $474,751. The Bing Crosby will be his 2021 debut.

Law Abidin Citizen followed the Bing Crosby with a start in the seven-furlong Pat O'Brien, the second in Del Mar's summer sprint stakes series, and was third to C Z Rocket. He made his 2021 debut with a fourth-place result in the Grade 3 Daytona at Santa Anita on May 29 then won the Oak Tree Sprint at Pleasanton on July 3.

“He's a hard-trying horse and maybe he can pull a little bit of an upset,” Glatt said.

Dr. Schivel won the Del Mar Futurity last September for trainer Luis Mendez after it had been reported that the ownership partners — Red Barons Barn and Rancho Temescal — were soon to turn the Violence colt over to Glatt.

The media voted Dr. Schivel the top 2-year-old of the meeting and Collusion Illusion the top sprinter, giving Glatt two returning division champions to saddle in the Crosby.

Dr. Schivel started his 3-year-old campaign with a neck victory in an allowance sprint at Santa Anita in June. Prat, who has won five of the last six runnings of the Bing Crosby – missing only in 2019 – will be aboard.

“He had a very good comeback race and he has trained very well since,” Glatt said.

Collusion Illusion became Glatt's fifth Breeders' Cup starter and a Crosby victory with any of the horses would put him in the enviable position of “home track” advantage when the BC Sprint is held at Del Mar as part of the 14-race, $28 million, two-day fall championships on November 5-6.

Collusion Illusion joined Eddie Haskell (11th, 2019 Turf Sprint) and La Tee (10th, 2008 Filly & Mare Sprint) as short-distance race Breeders' Cup starters for Glatt. He also had Blackjackcat (3rd, 2017 Mile on turf) and Sharp Samurai (3rd, 2020 Dirt Mile).

The performances of Blackjackcat and Sharp Samurai should serve as a shield for Glatt, a 48-year-old native of Washington, from being typecast as a “sprint” trainer. Not that he's worried about that either.

“If that's the worst thing they call me, I'm doing all right,” Glatt said.

Equibase statistics show Glatt is No. 42 in North America for earnings in 2021. Entering the third week of Del Mar racing on Thursday, July 29, he had 34 wins from 160 starters with stable purse earnings of $1,739,366. His career numbers: 6,774 starters, 1,039 wins (No. 1,000 was recorded last November 20 at the Bing Crosby fall meeting with Zestful) and earnings of more than $34 million.

With one Grade 1 victory on the record, he has loaded up for another on Saturday.

And this one, if it happens, won't be so quiet.

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Bing Crosby Nominations Promises Deep Field Of Sprinters At Del Mar

Seventeen horses, encompassing virtually all the top sprinters on the West Coast, have been nominated to Saturday's $300,000 Grade 1 Bing Crosby Stakes, assuring that the field will be a stellar one when it is set and post positions are drawn on Wednesday.

Trainer Mark Glatt finished first and third in the 2020 Crosby with Collusion Illusion and Law Abidin Citizen. He has those two plus Dr. Schivel nominated and said Sunday he might run all three.

Other marquee speedsters on the nomination list include 2020 Pat O'Brien winner C Z Rocket for Peter Miller; the trio of Ax Man, Eight Rings, and Gamine from the Bob Baffert barn; graded stakes winner Flagstaff from the John Sadler stable; and the double-quick Cal-bred Brickyard Ride out of the Craig Lewis barn.

Sadler said Flagstaff will skip the Bing Crosby and instead go in the seven-furlong Pat O'Brien here on August 28.

Baffert said the 4-year-old filly Gamine, a winner of six graded stakes in her last seven starts – four of them Grade 1s – is more likely to continue competing against her own gender elsewhere than take on males in the Bing Crosby.

But Gamine is one of 11 older fillies and mares nominated to next Sunday's Clement L. Hirsch, as is stablemate As Time Goes By. A 4-year-old daughter of Baffert-trained Triple Crown winner American Pharoah, As Time Goes By is one of three stakes winners at Santa Anita that are possibles for the Hirsch, a 1 1/16-mile main track event that usually determines the top older filly or mare of the meeting.

The others are Venetian Harbor and Warren's Showtime.

The 6-furlong Bing Crosby is a “Win & You're In” qualifier for the $2 million Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Sprint at Del Mar on November 6. The Clement L. Hirsch is likewise designated for the $2 million Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Distaff that same day.

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