Bing Crosby | Horse Racing Free Tips

David Jerkens: Del Mar Stable Area Showing Good Signs For 2020 Fall Meet

Based on stall applications and assignments, racing secretary David Jerkens projects there will be more horses on site for Del Mar's Bing Crosby meeting than usual in 2020.

“I'd say around 400-425 a day will be stabled here,” Jerkens said Wednesday afternoon. “That's slightly higher than usual (300-350) and I take it as a good sign.”

While most trainers will, for economic reasons, continue to house charges at Santa Anita, Los Alamitos or San Luis Rey Downs training center and ship in for the races, Jerkens listed 10 who are sending their entire Santa Anita stable to Del Mar. They are: Phil D'Amato, Doug O'Neill, John Shirreffs, Ron McAnally, Bill Spawr, Bob Hess, Jr., Kenny Black, Sal Gonzalez, Gary Mandella and Alfredo Marquez.

Saturday's opening day program of the Bing Crosby meeting was put together on Wednesday with 76 total entries, 73 in the “body” of the nine-race card and three listed as also eligibles.

“We expected maybe a few more, but there are going to be some very competitive races and we're certainly happy with the eight we got for the stakes (Kathryn Crosby),” Jerkens said.

After its Saturday-Sunday opening, the 15-day meeting runs Friday through Sunday through November 22 and closes with a four-day “Turf Festival” from Thanksgiving Day, November 26 to Sunday, November 29. Seven of the nine graded stakes during the meeting will be staged over the final four days over the Jimmy Durante Turf Course.

Those races, especially the Grade I Hollywood Derby and Grade I Matriarch Stakes, have been major enticements to East Coast trainers in the past and elite trainers Chad Brown, Mark Casse and Graham Motion, among others, have sent marquee runners with good success.

“Even in this COVID era, when people aren't shipping to the extent they used to, we've received quite a bit of interest from back east,” Jerkens said. “And I know some local trainers have been acquiring horses (for turf stakes) as well.”

It has been so long since rain graced San Diego County that's it's easy to forget that torrential downpours forced cancellations of two race programs last fall, one of them a Thanksgiving card scheduled to start the final week, and the rescheduling of some graded stakes.

Still, the East Coast contingent was a strong one and the appropriately name Got Stormy closed things with a victory in the Matriarch for Casse.

“If the weather cooperates, I think we'll get some very good horses from the east like we usually do,” Jerkens said.

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Del Mar’s Seventh Consecutive Fall Meet To Be Conducted Without Fans

Del Mar's seventh consecutive fall race meeting – presented with a Hollywood flare and a title that honors the track's founder, Bing Crosby – breaks from the starting gate this Saturday for a 15-day stand that will take it through to Sunday, Nov. 29.

The Bing Crosby Season will offer 16 stakes races during its run, headed by a pair of grassy Grade 1's on closing weekend – the $300,000 Hollywood Derby on Nov. 28 and the $300,000 Matriarch Stakes on Nov. 29.

After its Saturday/Sunday opening weekend, the track will settle into a Friday-through-Sunday format for the following three weeks, then close things out with a four-day finish starting on Thanksgiving Thursday, Nov. 26.

The track will continue its emphasis on the safety of its horses and riders which has now resulted in a highly successful three-year span that has seen it rise to the top of a list of the nation's safest racetracks. Its extensive program of enhanced procedures and protocols include additional veterinarian oversight, a panel of experts that scrutinizes all horse entries and overriding analyses of medications and workout routines for its horses. These once novel steps now have become part of the day-to-day routine at the shore racing headquarters.

As was the case during recently concluded summer meet, the track will operate its fall season under stringent COVID-19 protocols, including daily health screenings for all employees and essential personnel. It will have medical professionals onsite and require both the wearing of face masks and social distancing. In accordance with state and local guidelines, racing again will be conducted without fans in attendance.

“Safety is on our menu from start to finish,” said Del Mar Thoroughbred Club's CEO Joe Harper. “If you start with safety, everything else just flows. And not only will we again have safe racing, but we'll once more have the best racing in the country throughout our stand, something racing fans are going to love to watch.”

Nine of the track's fall stakes will be run on its Jimmy Durant Turf Course starting with the opening day Kathryn Crosby Stakes for fillies and mares going a mile. The meet's last seven stakes – presented over the extended Thanksgiving holiday weekend – are all contested on the lawn, leading up to the two Grade I offerings mentioned earlier.

In keeping with its Bing Crosby/Hollywood theme, the majority of the track's stakes are named for stars of the past who had Del Mar connections. Among the black-type presentations are races named for Desi Arnaz, Bob Hope, Betty Grable, Cary Grant, Jimmy Durante and Cecil B. DeMille.

Del Mar's racing office – headed by a pair of pros in its executive vice president for racing Tom Robbins and racing secretary David Jerkens – will be presenting either eight or nine races daily with a first post of 12:30 p.m. on all days with the exception of Thanksgiving Day and its special 11 a.m. start.

It also will present live cards on both Breeders' Cup days – Friday, Nov. 6 and Saturday, Nov. 7. Eight Del Mar races will be run both afternoons around the 14 championship events – five on Friday and nine of Saturday — conducted at Keeneland Race Course in Kentucky this year.

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Larry Collmus To Again Fill In For Trevor Denman At Del Mar

With Trevor Denman again opting to stay home out of concerns about the coronavirus pandemic, Del Mar once more has called on his ace substitute – Larry Collmus – to take up the mic at the shore track's fall race meeting beginning on Saturday, October 31.

The 15-day session, named the Bing Crosby Season in a salute to the track's founder, will have a Saturday/Sunday opening weekend, then three Friday-thru-Sunday weekends before finishing up with a four-day run keyed on Thanksgiving Thursday (November 26) through to Sunday, November 29.

Denman, Del Mar's announcer at every meet since 1984, chose to stay at his Minnesota farm this summer instead of working the Del Mar meet in light of fears for himself and his family presented by the virus. He indicated to track officials that he planned to return for the fall stand. In his stead, the nationally prominent race caller Collmus filled in admirably with his sharp calls and enthusiasm shining through over the course of the summer.

“We talked to Trevor right after our summer meet and it was obvious he was torn,” said Del Mar Thoroughbred Club's CEO Joe Harper. “There still was concern about the pandemic and his family, yet he also wanted to keep a commitment he'd made to us. But in the end we told him to stay home and stay safe; he appreciated that.”

Del Mar's next move was to reconnect with Collmus, the veteran announcer who has called at major race meetings from coast to coast over the past 35 years and who has been NBC television's voice of the Triple Crown for the last decade. Collmus quickly gave a thumbs up to the idea of returning to the seaside oval for another go-round and was signed on for the fall meet.

“I truly enjoyed calling the races this summer at Del Mar and look forward to the opportunity to return for the Bing Crosby meet,” Collmus said. “It's such a special place and I'm honored to be asked to come back.”

The seventh Bing Crosby Season, highlighted by 16 stakes and a strong emphasis on high-class turf racing, will see racing begin each day at 12:30 p.m. During the stand, Del Mar will serve as the California host track for the Breeders' Cup Championships, which will take place on November 6 and 7 at Keeneland in Lexington, KY.

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Collusion Illusion Takes on Elders in Bing Crosby

The lightly raced sophomore Collusion Illusion (Twirling Candy) will try to give his elders a run for their money Saturday in Del Mar’s GI Bing Crosby S., a “Win and You’re In” event for the GI Breeders’ Cup Sprint S. Opening his account with a pair of wins, including the GII Best Pal S. last summer, he was pulled up when trying two turns in the GI American Pharoah S. in September. Returning May 17, he scored a decisive victory in a six-panel optional claimer at Santa Anita and repeated that performance in the GIII Lazaro Barrera S. there June 20.

Fashionably Fast (Lucky Pulpit) won six straight races, including four Cal-bred stakes over the winter. The chestnut enters this off a second-place finish behind MGISW McKinzie (Street Sense) in the GII Triple Bend S. last time June 7. McKinzie was the morning-line favorite in this event at entries, but it was announced he would be scratched Wednesday.

Dual Grade III winner Law Abidin Citizen (Twirling Candy) takes a crack at the highest level here. Victorious in the GIII Longacres Mile H. last August, he was fourth I the GII San Carlos S. Mar. 7 at Santa Anita and missed by a hand behind stakes winner Ax Man (Misremembered) in an Arcadia optional claimer May 16 and won a 6 1/2-panel event there last time June 14.

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