Bob Hess | Horse Racing Free Tips

‘Older, Wiser And Hopefully A Little Better’: Desormeaux, Hess Back Together For Breeders’ Cup

In 1991, Robert B. Hess, Jr., won the first of back-to-back Del Mar training titles. In 1992, Hess' championship cohort was jockey Kent Desormeaux, who would score his first of back-to-back riding titles and rack up 135 wins in the two-year span.

A lot has happened in the 30 years since.

Desormeaux, 51, has notched victories in three Kentucky Derbies, three Preakness and a Belmont Stakes. He has six Breeders' Cup wins, three Eclipse Awards and has held membership in racing's Hall of Fame since 2004. With two wins Sunday at Santa Anita, Equibase statistics show him with 6,101 career victories from 32,413 mounts in a 35-year career.

Hess, 56, has gone nationwide with strings in Kentucky and Florida. But the native of Chula Vista has remained headquartered in Southern California and unabashedly citing Del Mar as holding a special place in his heart.

“Del Mar is my paradise,” Hess said Sunday. It is, after all, the place that provided him with his first winner (Palapiano, July 31, 1987), first training title in 1991 and first graded stakes winner (River Special, 1992 Del Mar Futurity).

And as they have over the years, Desormeaux and Hess are hoping to make headlines again when they team up with Cairo Memories in the Juvenile Fillies Turf and Chaos Theory in the Turf Sprint during Breeders' Cup weekend.

“I've got gray hair and he's got a couple of wrinkles, but hopefully we're older, wiser and hopefully a little better,” Hess said. “But we have the A-team back together and we're looking forward to it.”

Cairo Memories, a daughter of Cairo Prince, was pre-entered in the Juvenile Fillies and Juvenile Fillies Turf and will go in the $1 million, one mile grass event. She is 2-for-2 in a career begun at Del Mar on Sept. 5 and comes in off a win in the Surfer Girl Stakes at Santa Anita on Oct. 3.

“Cairo is splendid, a wonderful, gifted filly and just a pleasure to be around,” Hess said. “Unless the jock screws it up (with a wink toward Desormeaux), I think we'll get the money.”

Chaos Theory, like Cairo Memories owned by David Bernsen and partners, is a 6-year-old gelded son of Curlin. He has six wins in 18 starts with earnings of $359,454. Chaos Theory is 0-for-5 in 2021 but won both his career starts at Del Mar – the Green Flash in August and an optional claimer in November of 2020. Desormeaux was aboard for the first time in a third-place finish in the Eddie D Stakes at Santa Anita on Oct. 1.

Chaos Theory is one of 19 pre-entered in the $1 million, five-furlong event.

“Chaos, if he gets in, will run fantastic,” Hess said. “I've tweaked a few things, Kent knows him even better and it will be at his favorite distance on his favorite turf course.”

Desormeaux has one other Breeders' Cup mount lined up, Oviatt Class in the $2 million TVG Breeders' Cup Juvenile for his trainer/brother Keith.

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Cairo Memories Moving Forward Toward Breeders’ Cup With Surfer Girl Triumph

A close third heading into the far turn, the Bob Hess Jr. conditioned Cairo Memories set sail for home leaving the quarter pole and was never threatened through the lane en route to a 2 ¼-length score in Sunday's $200,000 Surfer Girl Stakes at Santa Anita in Arcadia, Calif. Ridden by Kent Desormeaux, the 2-year-old filly by Cairo Prince got one mile on turf in 1:34.27 and will now likely start in the $1 million Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf on Nov. 5 at Del Mar.

“She's been doing everything right,” said Hess. “We were encouraged by the way she broke her maiden and she's been moving forward in her training. Hopefully, this sets us up for the Breeders' Cup dance.”

A 4 ½-length one mile maiden turf winner in her debut Sept. 5, Cairo Memories was the second choice in a field of 11 at 4-1 and paid $10.00, $4.60 and $3.00.

“She brought some new energy from her first start,” said Desormeaux. “I think she was excited. I spent more time in the post parade calming her down…I worked her at Del Mar and before I ever rode her I thought she was great…I was with the owners in the paddock and that was the longest wait because I wanted to see how deep the water was, and she's shown (now) that she could really swim.”

Owned by David Bernsen, LLC and Schroeder Farms, LLC, Cairo Memories, who is out of the Indian Charlie mare Incarnate Memories, picked up $120,000 for the win, hiking her earnings to $162,000.

The 3-2 favorite with Flavien Prat, Irish-bred Helens Well rallied from next to last to finish second by a neck over Hemmerle and paid $3.00 and $2.40.

Off at 12-1 with Joe Bravo, Hemmerle was out-run late to finish third by a neck over Irish-bred Sterling Crest and paid $5.40 to show.

Fractions on the race were 22.14, 45.72, 1:10 flat and 1:22.26.

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Cairo Prince Rising Star Filly Takes Surfer Girl

SURFER GIRL S., $203,000, Santa Anita, 10-3, 2yo, f, 1mT, 1:34.27, fm.
1–CAIRO MEMORIES, 120, f, 2, by Cairo Prince
1st Dam: Incarnate Memories, by Indian Charlie
2nd Dam: Witness Post, by Gone West
3rd Dam: Most Likely, by Fappiano
'TDN Rising Star' 1ST BLACK-TYPE WIN. ($50,000 Ylg '20
KEESEP). O-David A. Bernsen, LLC & Schroeder Farms LLC;
B-Brereton C. Jones (KY); T-Robert B. Hess, Jr.; J-Kent J.
Desormeaux. $120,000. Lifetime Record: 2-2-0-0, $162,000.
*Full to Cariba, SW, $221,750.
2–Helens Well (Ire), 120, f, 2, Kodi Bear (Ire)–Ever Evolving (Fr),
by Elusive Quality. (800gns Ylg '20 TATASY). O-Benowitz Family
Trust, CYBT, Madaket Stables LLC, Michael Nentwig & Ray
Pagano; B-Mr Patrick Toes (IRE); T-Philip D'Amato. $40,000.
3–Hemmerle, 118, f, 2, Tapit–Diamond Necklace, by
Unbridled's Song. O/B-LNJ Foxwoods (KY); T-Richard E.
Mandella. $24,000.
Margins: 2 1/4, NK, NK. Odds: 4.00, 1.50, 12.70.
Also Ran: Sterling Crest (Ire), Miss Bellatrix, Brandon'smylawyer, Saturday Nite Girl, Dolly May (Ire), Sax, Liam's Dove, It's Simple.

Cairo Memories followed up on her 'TDN Rising Star'-worthy debut with an effortless open-length victory in the Surfer Girl S. at Santa Anita Sunday. The gray filly, sent off as the distant second choice, settled just off the early leaders, powered to the front off the turn and glided clear to wire, possibly earning herself a start in the Breeders' Cup. Heavy favorite Helens Well completed the exacta.

Cairo Memories was a 4 1/2-length debut winner going one mile of the Del Mar lawn Sept. 5 for Schroeder Farms. David Bernsen was added to the ownership line for this second start.

“She's been doing everything right,” said winning trainer Bob Hess. “We were encouraged by the way she broke her maiden and she's been moving forward in her training. Hopefully, this sets us up for the Breeders' Cup Dance.”

“She brought some new energy from her first start,” added winning rider Kent Desormeaux. “I think she was excited. I spent more time in the post parade calming her down. I worked her at Del Mar and before I ever rode her I thought she was great. I was with the owners in the paddock and that was the longest wait because I wanted to see how deep the water was, and she's shown [now] that she could really swim.” Click for the Equibase.com chart or VIDEO, sponsored by TVG.

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Longtime California Racing Executive Peter Tunney, 83, Passes

Peter Tunney, born into a family of racing and sports officials and who led Golden Gate Fields in Northern California for three decades, died on Wednesday at his home at Piedmont, Calif., in the San Francisco Bay Area. He was 83 and, according to Daily Racing Form, had suffered from Lewy body dementia.

Son of a Southern California racing official, Jim Tunney Sr., Tunney's first job was as a parking lot attendant at Hollywood Park while attending Occidental College in Los Angeles. Upon graduation he started working at the track full-time, first as an official and then in the racing office, including a three-year stint as Del Mar's racing secretary in the 1970s. He worked in numerous capacities at Santa Anita and Hollywood, and Tunney eventually settled in at Golden Gate Fields, serving as general manager for 30 years.

Tunney ran track and was a running back for the Occidental College football team, according to Daily Racing Form's Steve Andersen, who noted that Tunney was a 13th-round draft choice by the Detroit Lions in 1960. He played on the same college team as eventual NFL star quarterback Jack Kemp, who would later go on to a career in public service. Tunney sustained a non-football leg injury that cut short his athletic career and caused him to walk with a limp for the rest of his life, his wife, Anian, told DRF.

Tunney's brother, Jim, is known as the “dean of NFL referees,” working in that capacity from 1967-'90.

Trainer Bob Hess recalls when his late father, Bob Hess Sr., headed the Northern California horsemen's group and had ongoing interaction with Tunney. “Peter was always a gentleman, an intelligent and great man who always put horses and horse racing first.” said Hess.

Alan Balch, a former longtime track executive and now executive director of California Thoroughbred Trainers, worked alongside Tunney at both Southern and Northern California tracks.

“One of racing's good guys, Peter Tunney was at home anywhere on the track — whether in the garage at Hollywood Park, to the overflow parking lot at Santa Anita, to a Paris restaurant during Arc week, any Stewards' stand, Racing Office, or the executive suite at Golden Gate Fields,” said Balch. “He was a gifted raconteur and bon vivant whose droll sense of humor is unforgettable, and was a big part of his success as a management leader.”

Santa Anita, which like Golden Gate Fields is owned by The Stronach Group, issued the following statement: “Peter Tunney has been a constant, calming and classy tiller for California racing for over 40 years. His heart was as big as his smile and his handshake, which always was as good as his word. For most of the last 30 years, he has been synonymous with Golden Gate Fields and we will miss his guidance. Everyone involved in California racing, whether they personally knew Peter or not, has lost a dear and decent friend who was a champion for our sport, as his touch reached all aspects of the business. Our thoughts and condolences are with his family during this difficult time.”

Services were not known at time of writing.

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