Tag: Del Mar Summer

Trainer H. Graham Motion sent two horses west to Del Mar over the summer from his base at the Fair Hill Training Center in Maryland and came away with two stakes victories on consecutive days. Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners' Sister Otoole won the CTT and TOC Stakes by a half length going 1 3/8 miles on turf under Umberto Rispoli on Aug. 19. The next day, Gainesway Stable's Spendarella, making her first start since a second-place finish in the Group 1 Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot in June, dominated a dozen other 3-year-old fillies in the Grade 1 Del Mar Oaks, winning by 4 1/2 lengths under Tyler Gaffalione.

“It's going to be tough to keep that streak that going,” said Motion, who figures to have a presence throughout the ninth Bing Crosby Season that kicks off on Friday with an eight-race card with a 12:30 p.m. PT first post.

The 48-year-old native of Cambridge, England, has been sending runners to the seaside track north of San Diego since the first Crosby meet in 2014.

“It just works out really well after Keeneland,” Motion said of the Lexington, Ky., track's fall meet. He also likes the availability of grass racing, which goes into hibernation late in the year at many tracks in the East and Midwest. “It's so unpredictable around here this time of year,” Motion said from Maryland. “That's a big reason I've done this the last few years. And Del Mar has been extremely accommodating.”

Del Mar, located just north of San Diego, is cooler during the Bing Crosby Season than in summer, but rain in November remains relatively rare and few races are washed off the grass.

“And it's not a tough sell for the help to go out there,” said Motion's wife, Anita, an important part of the team working together at Herringswell Stables.

Indeed, who doesn't love coming to Del Mar?

Motion said assistant trainer Alice Clapham and a stable foreman traveled West for the meet to accompany the four runners flown out in time for opening day. More horses will be sent as the meet progresses, he said, with a focus on the stakes run over the final two weekends of the Crosby Season.

In Friday's opening race, a 1 1/16-mile maiden contest on turf, the stable will be represented by Eclipse Thoroughbred's Sareeha, an Irish-bred maiden coming off a second-place finish under Flavien Prat in a Sept. 18 race at the Belmont at the Big A meet in New York. Flavien Prat rides the 8-5 morning line favorite.

“It's been frustrating trying to get Sareeha in a maiden race around here so we decided we'd wait for Del Mar,” Motion said.

In the opening day stakes, the Let It Ride at a mile on turf, he'll have 3-1 morning line favorite Script, a Stone Farm homebred to be ridden by John Velazquez. The Algorithms colt won a Keeneland allowance last out Oct. 12 after eight months on the shelf.

“Script I always thought highly of,” said Motion. “In the spring he just didn't come around to be the horse we thought he'd be, but we found a touch of non-symptomatic pneumonia. He's come back really well after getting the summer off. Last out he showed some of the potential I always thought he had.”

Other horses from the Motion stable Del Mar fans can expect to see include Madaket Stables' Wootton Asset, winner in 2021 of the G3 Virginia Derby. The French-bred gelding is being pointed to the G2 Seabiscuit Handicap at 1 1/16 miles on turf Nov. 26. He also has Sister Otoole penciled in for a Del Mar return in the G3 Red Carpet Stakes on Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 24. The trainer said Madaket's. G Laurie, scratched from the G1 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf, could be ready in time for the G3 Jimmy Durante Stakes on Dec. 3. Another possibility for the meet is the 2-year-old Irish-bred colt Disdainful, who was a good second in his U.S. debut at Keeneland in late October. He races for Eclipse.

Motion has enjoyed success during Bing Crosby Season, particularly in 2016 when he won four stakes: the G1 Matriarch with Miss Temple City; the G2 Seabiscuit with Ring Weekend; and the G3 Jimmy Durante with Happy Mesa. French-bred Aries, a fourth stakes starter from Motion's eight runners during that meet, finished second in the G3 Red Carpet.

Two years ago, the Motions made a decision to cut back on the number of horses they oversee, selling one of the two barns they operated out of at Fair Hill.

“Numbers wise, we're running fewer horses,” said Motion. “We've had two rebuilding years after making a conscious decision to cut back and concentrate on quality over quantity.

The Fair Hill barn has 70 stalls and another 10 horses are stabled at a  small farm the couple purchased about a mile from the training center.

“Alice (Clapham) is always on the road with a string, so it adds up to about 100 horses when we're busy,” he said.

Despite being down in numbers, 2022 has been a strong year for Motion, with purse earnings through Oct. 10 of $6.6 million from 373 starts, higher than any of the previous four years when he's had as many as 574 starts. The stable peaked in terms of yearly starts in 2014 with 782.

Looking beyond the Bing Crosby Season, Motion said he is entertaining the idea of maintaining a stable at Santa Anita during winter. “I'm ambivalent about it,” he said. I think about it every year.

“It's a huge commitment,” he added. “Once you're out there you're a long way from home. The pluses are the turf racing. The turf course is terrific, the weather is usually pretty good and so is the money. It's very appealing.”

The post Del Mar’s Bing Crosby Season: Motion Goes From Coast To Coast appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Two-year-olds are in the spotlight on the final three days of the Del Mar summer meet, beginning with Friday's three o'clock (Pacific) card featuring California-bred juveniles contesting the I'm Smokin Stakes. Post time is 1 p.m. Pacific on Saturday and Sunday.

Saturday's TVG Del Mar Debutante for 2-year-old fillies and Sunday's closing day Runhappy Del Mar Futurity for 2-year-olds are both Grade 1 events run at seven furlongs. Both races have had a significant impact on year-end Eclipse Awards, with five Debutante winners since 2000 named 2-year-old filly champion, most recently Songbird in 2015. The Futurity has had seven winners since 2000 go on to be named Eclipse Award champion 2-year-old male, with Game Winner in 2018 the most recent. Two of those seven – American Pharoah in 2014 and Nyquist in 2015 – would win the following year's G1 Kentucky Derby. American Pharoah actually broke his maiden in the Futurity, the first of eight consecutive wins that included the 2015 Triple Crown.

Trainer Bob Baffert has dominated both the Debutante and Futurity. Since 1995, Baffert has won the Debutante on 10 occasions, including the last three from 2019-'21. He's got two of the eight entries in this year's Debutante, including 9-5 morning line favorite Home Cooking, an Honor Code filly who drew off by 9 ¼ lengths to break her maiden in her second Del Mar start on Aug. 21.

One filly not in the Debutante lineup is the John Shirreffs-trained Justique, a daughter of Justify who was extremely impressive in her debut, closing from last to win a maiden race by 2 ½ lengths going 5 ½ furlongs July 31. She missed some training in August and will be pointed for the G2 Chandelier Stakes at Santa Anita Oct. 8.

Baffert has three colts entered in the Futurity in hopes of padding his record 15 victories in the meet's top race for 2-year-olds. Baffert, who trained last year's Futurity winner Pinehurst, saddled seven consecutive winners of this race from 1996-2002.

Cave Rock is the strongest of the Baffert trio. The Arrogate colt romped by six lengths in his debut on Aug. 13 at Del Mar, going wire to wire under Juan Hernandez. Cave Rock earned a 101 Beyer Speed Figure that afternoon. The next two highest Beyer Speed Figures in the field came from Baffert-trained Havnameltdown (81) and Newgate (80).

Both Cave Rock and Havnameltdown are owned by the partnership of Michael E. Pegram, Karl Watson, and Paul Weitman, who entered Friday's racing atop the Del Mar owner standings with seven wins from 19 starts. Just one win back is six-time leading owner Hronis Racing, with six wins from 38 starts. (Note: Hronis Racing's win total does not include Flightline, which the Hronises own in partnership with four other entities.)

In the trainer standings, Baffert is tied with Doug O'Neill going into the final three days, each with 17 wins, though Baffert's come from just 64 starts compared with O'Neill's 124. Phil D'Amato is just one back at 16, with George Papaprodromou at 14 wins, Peter Miller and Jonathan Wong at 13 each, and the trio of John Sadler, Mark Glatt and Andy Mathis with 12 wins each.

Wong and Mathis, who have been based in Northern California, both had a major impact during this year's meet, tripling their output from 2021 when they each won four races.

If Baffert comes out on top, this would be his first Del Mar training title by wins since 2003, when he led the standings for the seventh consecutive year. O'Neill is a five-time summer meet leading trainer, most recently in 2019.

Tenth-leading trainer with eight wins is Dean Pederson, who won an astounding 67 percent of his 12 starts during the meet. Pederson has had just 37 starts in all of 2022, winning 13 times. Among his clients is longtime California owner-breeder John Harris of Harris Farms.

All told, 67 trainers have won races during this year's summer meet.

Juan Hernandez, who gained the most when perennial leader Flavien Prat shifted his tack to New York, has been the runaway leader in the jockey standings since tripling on the first two days of the meet. He enters the final weekend with 45 wins from 178 mounts, 19 more than Umberto Rispoli.

Prat made one appearance during the summer, and it was auspicious. He won with four of eight mounts on Pacific Classic day Sept. 3, including the big one, the TVG Pacific Classic, aboard the horse everyone in racing is talking about, Flightline. Prat guided the Tapit colt to a 19 ¼-length win in near-track record time despite being geared down in the final sixteenth of a mile.

Hands down, Flightline will be the horse of the meet, based on that one memorable performance, but special mention goes to Jaime R. Renella's homebred Chismosa, a Clubhouse Ride filly who won three races during the meet. Trained by Rafael DeLeon, the California-bred miss won her debut in a maiden race July 23, came back to win the California Thoroughbred Breeders Association Stakes Aug. 7, then added the Generous Portion Stakes on Sept. 5.

Closing thoughts:

-Friday's races were taken off the turf because of a rare summer storm that moved into the area from the south.
-There will be a mandatory payout in the Pick 6 and all other bets on Sunday's closing day.
-The Del Mar fall meet kicks off on Nov. 11 and races on a Friday through Sunday schedule, plus Thanksgiving Thursday, Nov. 24. Closing day is Sunday, Dec. 4.

The post Del Mar Summer: Closing Weekend Spotlight On Juveniles appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Since the first Pacific Classic was contested at Del Mar in 1991, there have been 10 winning favorites in the 31 runnings.

But that doesn't tell the whole story. None of the first six winners, beginning with 9-2 second choice Best Pal, was favored. The first winning favorite was Gentleman, bet down to 1-2 odds in a field of five for the 1997 renewal. In fact, in the first 13 runnings of the Pacific Classic, Gentleman was the lone winning favorite. That means nine of the last 18 runnings were won by favorites.

Undefeated Flightline, installed as the 1-5 morning line favorite in this year's TVG Pacific Classic, almost certainly will be the ninth odds-on betting choice to contest the 1 1/4-mile race. So far, only three of the eight odds-on favorites have won: the aforementioned Gentleman; Accelerate the 2-5 favorite in 2018; and 2-5 favorite Maximum Security in 2020.

The losing odds-on favorites are led by Cigar, the 1-10 choice in 1996 who was bidding for his 17th consecutive victory and attracted a massive on-track crowd of 44,181 – largest ever for the Pacific Classic. Ridden by Jerry Bailey, Cigar was overtaken in the stretch by Dare and Go and jockey Alex Solis, who won by 3 1/2 lengths and paid $81.20 as the longest-priced winner in the race's history.

Inaugural winner Best Pal finished third as the 2-5 favorite in the 1993 running won by Bertrando; General Challenge finished fourth at 9-10 odds in 2000; Medaglia d'Oro was runner-up to Candy Ride as the 3-5 favorite in 2003; and Arrogate was second at 7-10 odds to Bob Baffert stablemate Collected in 2017.

Flightline will have only five opponents on Saturday, but this isn't the smallest Pacific Classic field. In 2003, only four horses lined up for the $1 million pot. Medaglia d'Oro, coming off an odds-on win in Saratoga's Grade 1 Whitney Handicap three weeks earlier, was trained by Robert Frankel, who'd won six of the first 13 Pacific Classics. Jerry Bailey was named to ride.

Candy Ride, an Argentine-bred who came to the U.S. in 2002 with a perfect three-for-three record, was trained by Ron McAnally. He'd been ridden in his two U.S. starts by Alex Solis and most recently by Gary Stevens, but Stevens suffered an injury the previous week in the Grade 1 Arlington Million. McAnally called on Julie Krone, who rode Candy Ride to perfection, tracking Medaglia d'Oro for the opening mile, then taking command in the stretch to win by 3 1/4 lengths. It was a virtual match race, with the other two runners, Fleetstreet Dancer and Milwaukee Brew, never a factor.

Candy Ride's final time, 1:59.11 set a track record that still stands.

While Krone is the lone female jockey to win the Pacific Classic, Beholder, who crushed nine male rivals by 8 1/4 lengths in 2015, is the only filly or more to win it. Her bid for a repeat fell five lengths shy of California Chrome when second the following year. Only four other fillies have contested the race: Paseana (fifth in 1992); Island Fashion (ninth in 2005); Amani (sixth in 2012); and Byrama (seventh in 2013).

There have been three back-to-back winners: Tinners Way (1994-'95) and Skimming (2000-'01) were both trained by Frankel, while Richard's Kid (2009-'10) was trained to his two victories by Baffert.

Frankel and Baffert lead the way among trainers with six wins each, Frankel's coming from 19 starts and Baffert's from 28 starts. Richard Mandella won four from 19 starts and Sadler has won three from 16 (all three have come in the last four years).

Among jockeys, Mike Smith and Garrett Gomez have won the Pacific Classic four times each.

There are no 3-year-olds in this year's Pacific Classic, but five of the previous 31 renewals were won by sophomore stars: Best Pal (1991), General Challenge (1999), Came Home (2002), Dullahan (2012), and Shared Belief (2014).

Accelerate, the shortest priced winner  ($2.80) also holds the Pacific Classic record for the widest winning margin of 12 1/2 lengths.

Could that record be in jeopardy on Saturday? Considering that Flightline's winning margins were 13 1/4, 12 3/4, 11 1/2, and six lengths, you'd have to think so.

The post Del Mar Summer: TVG Pacific Classic, By The Numbers appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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There is still time to make plans to travel to Del Mar for the big Labor Day racing weekend. In fact, if you fly out today, your luggage might arrive in time for Saturday's Grade 1, $1 million TVG Pacific Classic. On second thought, don't check a bag.

According to track founder and inveterate crooner, Bing Crosby, you can also take a train or a car to where the turf meets the surf. There's also a smile on every face and a winner in each race, but I digress.

Del Mar will be racing five days this week, Thursday, Sept. 1, through Labor Day Monday, Sept. 5. While the stakes offerings are plentiful – five on Saturday, two on Sunday and two on Monday – the anticipated appearance by the unbeaten Flightline in the Pacific Classic stands head and shoulders above everything else.

There are so many questions.

-Will Flightline be able to stretch his devastating speed around two turns for the first time?

-Can this son of Tapit get the American classic distance of a mile and a quarter?

-Where should I eat and where should I go while I'm in Del Mar?

I can only speculate on the first two questions, but I know trainer John Sadler has the utmost confidence in Flightline. The colt has passed every test (OK, there have only been four since April 2021), and I've seen nothing to suggest that the longer distance will be his Achilles heel.

As for the final question, you've come to the right place. Here are my recommendations, all within a 15-minute drive of the racetrack:

Breakfast

Ki's Restaurant, 2591 S. Coast Highway 101, Cardiff, CA 92007. Two-story building on the coast road serves breakfast, lunch and dinner, but I'm partial to their breakfasts, including smoothies and juices. Order downstairs, then go upstairs to enjoy an incredible view of the Pacific.

Claire's on Cedros, 246 N. Cedros Avenue, Solana Beach, CA 92075. Just a short walk from the Solana Beach train station (you may need to park in that lot if it's a busy day). Everybody loves Claire's for breakfast, and there's a lot to like, not the least of which are the Benedicts. I always prefer their outdoor seating in back. Tell 'em Larry Collmus sent you.

Ranch 45 Local Provisions, 512 Via De La Valle, Suite 102, Solana Beach, CA 92075. Ranch 45 is located next door to the more upscale dinner spot Pamplemousse Grille and just east of the racetrack's Solana gate. Their breakfast bowls are my go-to items on a fairly limited menu. Order inside, eat outside.

Lunch

Board & Brew, 1812 Camino Del Mar, Del Mar, CA 92014. You won't find a better sandwich, in part because everything is fresh. Highly recommend the house specialty, the Turkado (turkey and avocado). Portions are large. If you can't eat both halves, give me a call.

The Taco Stand, 642 S. Coast Highway 101, Encinitas, CA 92024. Always busy local favorite (with multiple locations from San Diego to La Jolla and even Las Vegas) features handmade corn tortillas and offers a variety of taco options, including spicy shrimp, cactus, mushroom and of course fish, beef and chicken. Best bet is to find an “off” time away from the noon-1 p.m. rush.

Dinner

Pacific Coast Grill, 2526 S. Coast Highway 101, Cardiff, CA 92007. Oceanfront dining at its best, with outside and indoor tables. Classic, moderately priced menu heavy on fish options. Shrimp dumplings are a specialty on the appetizer menu. Have never left there disappointed.

Tony's Jacal, 621 Valley Avenue, Solana Beach, CA 92075. I've been singing the praises of the turkey nachos and turkey tacos at this family run operation that first opened in 1946, but the more traditional meals are very good as well. Can be very busy and Tony's Jacal does not take reservations, but the bar menu offers some of the entrees (including the nachos and tacos) if you're in a hurry.

Also worthwhile: Naked Café in Solana Beach for breakfast, Monarch Ocean Pub, Jake's or Poseidon in Del Mar for sunset drinks or dinner. The Brigantine Seafood & Oyster Bar, which overlooks Del Mar racetrack, has the best fish tacos in town.

Activities: Rent an e-bike for a ride up or down the coast. San Diego Electric Bike in Solana Beach has different rental packages. Hike through Torrey Pines State Reserve, entrance off Carmel Valley Road (Tip: park on Carmel Valley Road to avoid the $15 parking charge.) The more adventurous might try hang gliding or paragliding at the Torrey Pines Gliderport in La Jolla.

Don't forget that post time is 1 p.m. PT for the rest of the meet with Friday's 3 p.m. starts the only exception.

The post Del Mar Summer: A Visitor’s Guide For Pacific Classic Week appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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