Del Mar Handicap | Horse Racing Free Tips

Weekend Lineup: Pacific Classic, Fourstardave Highlight Racing Action

Three Breeders' Cup Challenge Series “Win and You're In” races are on tap for August 22 at Saratoga and Del Mar. The Pacific Classic at Del Mar is an automatic qualifier for the Breeders' Cup Classic, while the Del Mar Handicap offers a fees-paid entry to the Breeders' Cup Turf. At Saratoga, the Fourstardave Handicap is a “Win and You're In” qualifier for the Breeders' Cup Mile.

The Pacific Classic and Del Mar Handicap will both be televised live on TVG as part of their comprehensive coverage of racing at Del Mar. In addition to Del Mar, TVG will also be broadcasting racing from Gulfstream Park, Monmouth Park, Golden Gate and more all weekend.

The Fourstardave will be shown on NYRA's “Saratoga Live” telecast on FS2. “Saratoga Live” will be shown on either FS1 or FS2 through Sunday. For the complete “Saratoga Live” broadcast schedule, and additional programming information, visit https://www.nyra.com/saratoga/racing/tv-schedule.

Friday August 21

9:07 p.m.—$100,000 Grade 3 Rancho Bernardo Handicap at Del Mar on TVG

K M N Racing's Sneaking Out, a 4-year-old filly with a strong resume, a Hall of Fame trainer and Del Mar's leading rider set to climb on board, is a solid favorite for the 49th edition of the Rancho Bernardo Handicap. Sneaking Out has been first or second in nine of her 11 starts. She's won a pair of stakes, most recently capturing the Grade 2 Great Lady M. Stakes at Los Alamitos to push her bankroll to $431,441.

Entries: https://www.equibase.com/static/entry/DMR082120USA9-EQB.html

Saturday August 22

2:29 p.m.—$200,000 Grade 3 Philip H. Iselin Stakes at Monmouth Park on TVG

Warrior's Charge, fourth in the Grade 1 Met Mile in his last start and a close-up fourth in the 2019 Preakness Stakes, heads a compact field of six for the 85th edition of the Iselin, the feature on a 14-race card. A 4-year-old son of Munnings, Warrior's Charge launched his 2020 campaign with a win in the Grade 3 Razorback at Oaklawn on February. 17. He followed that by finishing second in the Grade 2 Oaklawn Handicap before being beaten just two lengths in the Met Mile at Belmont Park on July 4 in his last start.

Entries: https://www.equibase.com/static/entry/MTH082220USA5-EQB.html

5:46 p.m.—$400,000 Grade 1 Fourstardave Handicap at Saratoga Race Course on FS2

Gary Barber's Got Stormy will take on reigning champion turf female Uni (GB) as she looks to defend her title in the 36th running of the Fourstardave at Saratoga Race Course. Trained by Mark Casse, Got Stormy will seek to become the first back-to-back winner of the Fourstardave since two-time Horse of the Year Wise Dan scored back to back victories in 2012-13 and will look to end a streak of four straight losses. Eclipse Award-winner Uni, one of four runners for trainer Chad Brown along with Raging Bull (FR), Valid Point and Without Parole (GB), will attempt to replicate her form from last year when making her second start of 2020. Uni, who was third in last year's Fourstardave, rounded out the trifecta as the favorite in her seasonal bow in the Grade 1 Just a Game on June 27 at Belmont Park, where she finished 3 ½ lengths behind stablemate Newspaperofrecord.

Entries: https://www.equibase.com/static/entry/SAR082220USA9-EQB.html

6:05 p.m.—$100,000 Grade 3 Green Flash Handicap at Del Mar on TVG

The Green Flash Handicap leads off a banner day of racing at Del Mar offering five stakes worth a total of more than $1-million. Topweighted in the Green Flash at 123 pounds – and the morning line favorite at 5-2 – is Del Secco DCS Racing's Sparky Ville, a multiple-stakes winning Candy Ride (ARG) gelding who already has a win at the session on the five-panel layout that he'll run on Saturday. Mike Smith rode the 4-year-old to a photo-finish tally on July 26 and has the call back Saturday. Jeff Bonde trains the chestnut Kentucky-bred who can claim purse earnings of $321,312.

Entries: https://www.equibase.com/static/entry/DMR082220USA3-EQB.html

6:36 p.m.—$100,000 Grade 3 Torrey Pines Stakes at Del Mar on TVG

Seven 3-year-old fillies will match strides at in the 43rd edition of the Torrey Pines Stakes. Topping the group in the one-mile testing will be Bamford or Tabor's Uncle Mo filly Harvest Moon. The bay Kentucky-bred, who races out of the barn of trainer Simon Callaghan, has only started three times and never run versus stakes competition, but appears to have found a spot right in her wheelhouse in the Torrey Pines.

Entries: https://www.equibase.com/static/entry/DMR082220USA4-EQB.html

8:06 p.m.—$200,000 Grade 2 Del Mar Handicap at Del Mar on TVG

L N J Foxwoods' United will strut his stuff in the oldest stakes on the shore oval's roster, which is also a “Win and You're In” program that grants its winner a guaranteed entry with fees paid in the $4 million Breeders' Cup Turf. United, who has banked $1,253,549 during a career that has seen him win six of 14 starts including a three-for-three run in stakes this year, scored most recently in the Grade 2 Eddie Read Stakes at Del Mar on July 26.

Entries: https://www.equibase.com/static/entry/DMR082220USA7-EQB.html

9:06 p.m.—$250,000 Grade 1 Del Mar Oaks at Del Mar on TVG

Eleven 3-year-old fillies will test their mettle over nine furlongs on the Del Mar turf course Saturday in the Del Mar Oaks. The likely favorite in the highly sought lawn test is Gary Barber's Laura's Light, a daughter of Constitution who has won five of her seven lifetime starts, including a last-out tally in one-mile Del Mar's San Clemente Stakes on grass July 25.

Entries: https://www.equibase.com/static/entry/DMR082220USA9-EQB.html

9:36 p.m.—$500,000 Grade 1 Pacific Classic Stakes at Del Mar on TVG

Champion Maximum Security, the fourth-ranked horse on the latest NTRA Top Thoroughbred Poll, headlines the track's marquee event – the Pacific Classic. The son of New Year's Day, bred by owners Gary and Mary West, who have added partners to his ownership group in Susan Magnier, Michael Tabor and Derrick Smith, will take on five rivals in the mile and a quarter for 3-year-old and up and he'll have Abel Cedillo in the irons. Cedillo rode the bay to a hard-fought nose victory in the San Diego Handicap here on July 25 in his first start in five months and first under the care of trainer Bob Baffert. The 4-year-old carried topweight of 127 pounds that day but, under the weight-for-age conditions of the “Classic,” he – and all the other runners – will go postward with 124 pounds Saturday.

Entries: https://www.equibase.com/static/entry/DMR082220USA10-EQB.html

Sunday August 23

5:18 p.m.—$500,000 Grade 1 Diana Stakes at Saratoga Race Course on FS1

Trainer Chad Brown will enter Sunday's Diana at Saratoga Race Course loaded for bear, saddling two former Breeders' Cup winners in Rushing Fall and Sistercharlie (IRE) as he looks to win the race for a fifth consecutive year. Sistercharlie has captured the last two runnings for Brown and will look to achieve a three-peat in headlining the six-horse field. The now 6-year-old daughter of Myboycharlie (IRE) won the 2018 Eclipse Award as champion turf female for a campaign that included her first Diana victory as well as scores in that year's Grade 1 Jenny Wiley, Grade 1 Beverly D. and Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf. Sistercharlie's stablemate, Rushing Fall, is a five-time Grade 1 winner, including last out when she outkicked Jolie Olimpica by three-quarters of a length to repeat in the Jenny Wiley on July 11 at Keeneland. The winner of the 2017 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf is already Grade 1-winner at ages 2, 3, 4 and 5, including the 2018 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup at Keeneland.

Entries: https://www.equibase.com/static/entry/SAR082320USA8-EQB.html

9 p.m.—$150,000 Grade 2 Del Mar Mile Handicap at Del Mar on TVG

Grade 1 winner Mo Forza makes just his second start of 2020 when he heads up a field of 11 in the Del Mar Mile Handicap. Trained by Peter Miller, Mo Forza concluded his 2019 campaign with four straight victories, including a triumph at Del Mar in the Grade 1 Hollywood Derby. The son of Uncle Mo has not started since running ninth in the Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational Stakes at Gulfstream Park on January 25.

Entries: https://www.equibase.com/static/entry/DMR082320USA9-EQB.html

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United Earns Top Billing In ‘Win And You’re In’ Del Mar Handicap

L N J Foxwoods' United, a big, strapping racehorse who can run all day on the grass with the best around, will strut his stuff at Del Mar Saturday in the oldest stakes on the shore oval's roster – the Del Mar Handicap.

This is the 81st season of summer racing at Del Mar and this is the 81st running of the Del Mar 'Cap, a race that has been won by dozens of top class horses over the years and might add another to its ranks in the Giant's Causeway gelding United.

The race goes as the 7th on an 11-race program that offers more than $1-million in purses. It carries a $200,000 incentive, Grade II status and further encouragement because it is part of the “Win and You're In” program that grants its winner a guaranteed entry with fees paid in the $4 million Breeders' Cup Turf, the foremost event for grass runners nationally that will be contested this year on November 7 at Keeneland in Lexington, KY as part of the two-day Breeders' Cup championships.

Notably, United ran in that race last year when it was held at Santa Anita and lost a furious battle to Horse of the Year Bricks and Mortar by a head. Trainer Richard Mandella circled this year's running of the Turf on his calendar and has been pointing his charge toward it again.

United will face 10 foes Saturday and they'll travel a mile and three eighths on the Jimmy Durante Turf Course.

Here's the lineup from the rail out with weights, riders and morning line odds:

United (126, Flavien Prat, 8/5); Team Block's Another Mystery (119, Victor Espinoza, 20-1); Hronis Racing's Combatant (123, Ricardo Gonzalez, 8-1); Bran Jam Stable and Firsthome Thoroughbreds' Big Buzz (117, Edwin Maldonado, 20-1); Mr. and Mrs. Larry D. Williams' Ward 'n Jerry (120, Mike Smith, 10-1); Benowitz Family Trust and Madaket Stables' Proud Pedro (119, Juan Hernandez, 12-1); Little Red Feather Racing, Jacobsen, et al's Red King (120, Umberto Rispoli, 8-1); Team Work Horseman Group's New Year (117, Tiago Pereira, 20-1); Messineo or Sands' Oscar Dominguez (122, Drayden Van Dyke, 6-1); B G Stables' Originaire (121, Abel Cedillo, 5-1), and Messineo or Sands' North County Guy (118, Mario Gutierrez, 15-1).

United, who has banked $1,253,549 during a career that has seen him win six of 14 starts including a three-for-three run in stakes this year, scored most recently in the Grade II Eddie Read Stakes at Del Mar on July 26. The chestnut's connections behind L N J Foxwoods are Larry and Nancy Roth and their daughter, Jaime, from Great Neck, NY.

It appears that Originaire and Oscar Dominguez – a pair of Irish-bred runners – are the chief threats to United.

Originaire, a 4-year-old by Zoffany, has chased United home in his last two starts, the Eddie Read and then the Whittingham at Santa Anita prior to that. The bay colt has finished in the top three in 12 of his 18 starts and is trained by veteran Jeff Mullins.

Oscar Dominguez won Del Mar's Hollywood Turf Cup at a mile and one-half here last fall. He has six wins, six seconds and six thirds and earnings of $464,214 to his credit. He's a 7-year-old gelding, also by Zoffany, and runs out of the Richard Baltas barn.

Combatant registered a big win earlier in the year when he was a photo-finish victor in the Santa Anita Handicap. The 5-year-old by the late sire Scat Daddy has just over $1-million in winnings. His trainer is John Sadler.

First post for the Saturday card is 2 p.m.

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Saturday’s Cross Country Pick 5 Features Graded Stakes From Saratoga, Del Mar

The New York Racing Association, Inc. (NYRA) will host a Cross Country Pick 5 featuring four graded stakes overall and three Grade 1s between historic Saratoga Race Course and Del Mar on Saturday.

Live coverage will be available with Saratoga Live on FOX Sports and MSG Networks. Free Equibase past performances for the Cross Country Pick 5 sequence are now available for download at https://www.nyra.com/saratoga/racing/cross-country-wagers.

Saratoga will start the wager with a full field of juveniles going 1 1/16 miles on the inner turf in Race 5 at 3:28 p.m. Eastern. The maiden contest will feature a pair of entrants for Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott in Lease and Thorn, while fellow Hall of Fame conditioner Mark Casse will send out American Diamond from the outermost post 10. Winfromwithin, trained by Todd Pletcher, will break from post 8.

The day's feature race at the Spa will comprise the second leg, as the Casse-trained Got Stormy will look to repeat in the Grade 1, $400,000 Fourstardave in Race 9 at 5:46 p.m. Last year, Got Stormy became the first female to win the Fourstardave, setting a track record for the one-mile inner turf course test by completing the course in 1:32 flat. This year, she drew post 4 with Tyler Gaffalione aboard as she competes against a talented field that includes Eclipse Award-winner Uni, who is one of four runners for trainer Chad Brown along with Raging Bull, Valid Point and Without Parole. Mott will send out a pair in Chewing Gum and Casa Creed. The Fourstardave is a “Win and You're In” qualifier to the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Mile in November at Keeneland.

Del Mar will feature the wager's final three races with three graded stakes, starting with the Grade 2, $200,000 Del Mar Handicap for 3-year-olds and up going 1 3/8 miles on the turf in Race 7 at 8 p.m. United, who ran in the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Turf last year, will compete in a race that will offer the winner an automatic berth in the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Turf. Combatant won a Grade 1 in March when he captured the Santa Anita Handicap over the main track. The 11-horse field also features Oscar Dominguez, the Irish bred who won the 1 ½-mile Grade 2 Hollywood Turf Cup.

The Grade 1 action continues in the fourth leg in the $250,000 Del Mar Oaks for 3-year-old fillies going 1 1/8 miles on the turf in Race 9 at 9 p.m. Laura's Light, trained by Peter Miller, won the Grade 3 Honeymoon at the same distance. She will face an 11-horse field that includes European horses such as Miss Extra, winner of the Group 2 Prix de Sandringham in France, and the French-bred Neige Blanche, who captured the Group 3 Prix Cleopatre in her native country.

The finale will be the Grade 1, $500,000 Pacific Classic in Race 10 at 9:30 p.m. Maximum Security, who won the Eclipse Award last year as Champion 3-year-old, is 2-for-2 to start his 4-year-old campaign after winning the Saudi Cup and the Grade 2 San Diego Handicap last out. The horse who crossed the wire first in last year's Grade 1 Kentucky Derby before being disqualified and placed 17th and has won four graded stakes since the “Run for the Roses,” taking the Grade 1 Haskell at Monmouth Park, the Grade 3 Bold Ruler at Belmont Park and the Grade 1 Cigar Mile Handicap in December at Aqueduct Racetrack. Now trained by Hall of Famer Bob Baffert, Maximum Security is one of six contenders in the 1 ¼-mile test, which includes Midcourt, Higher Power, Mirinaque, Dark Vader and Sharp Samurai.

The minimum bet for the multi-track, multi-race wager is 50 cents. Wagering on the Cross Country Pick 5 is also available on ADW platforms and at simulcast facilities across the country. Every week will feature a mandatory payout of the net pool.

The Cross Country Pick 5 will continue each Saturday throughout the year. For more information, visit NYRABets.com.

Cross Country Pick 5 – Saturday, August 22:
Leg 1 – Saratoga, Race 5: (3:28 p.m.)
Leg 2 – Saratoga, Race 9: G1 Fourstardave (5:46 p.m.)
Leg 3 – Del Mar, Race 7: G2 Del Mar Handicap (8:00 p.m.)
Leg 4 – Del Mar, Race 9: G1 Del Mar Oaks (9:00 p.m.)
Leg 5 – Del Mar, Race 10: G1 Pacific Classic (9:30 p.m.)

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