Del Mar | Horse Racing Free Tips

Speightstown’s Astute Stays Undefeated for Mandella in Desi Arnaz

Astute debuted Oct. 12 on the Santa Anita lawn, going 5 1/2 furlongs and getting a neck win after leading throughout. The $425,000 Keeneland September yearling graduate skipped a few conditions to move straight to black-type company in the Desi Arnaz S. In addition to the jump in company, she was also switching over to the main track and upping the distance by a furlong.

Just like in her maiden, Astute went to the front, but this time she got headed by Private Mission (Into Mischief) to her inside after a :22.21 quarter and the foe had a head on her as the battle unfolded through the half in :45.30. Astute won the war, shaking clear with ease coming off the turn and simply drawing away, taking command with authority to win by 7 1/2 lengths.

“The owners and the manager–Alex Solis, Jr.–told me before I ever saw her that she’s special and it’s kind of held true,” said Hall of Fame trainer Richard Mandella. “She got a little sick on me in the summer and I had to give her a month off, so that’s why she’s a little late [starting her career]. I only put her in the maiden turf [debut win] because I knew she could do turf and I was afraid a dirt race the next day wouldn’t fill. I expected she’d run well today, but maybe not this well. We’ll think about the [GI] Starlet [S., Dec. 5 at Los Alamitos].”

Astute is the second black-type winner for her dam following 2015 GII Inside Information S. and 2014 GIII Go For Wand H. victress Classic Point. Discerning died in 2019, as did her Flatter foal that year. Click for the Equibase.com chart or VIDEO, sponsored by Fasig-Tipton.

Saturday, Del Mar
DESI ARNAZ S., $100,500, Del Mar, 11-14, 2yo, f, 6 1/2f, 1:17.28, ft.
1–ASTUTE, 120, f, 2, by Speightstown
               1st Dam: Discerning, by Langfuhr
               2nd Dam: Clandestinely, by Forty Niner
               3rd Dam: Personal Business, by Private Account
($425,000 Ylg ’19 KEESEP). 1ST BLACK TYPE WIN. O-LNJ
Foxwoods; B-WinStar Farm, LLC (KY); T-Richard E. Mandella;
J-Mike E. Smith. $60,000. Lifetime Record: 2-2-0-0, $93,000.
*1/2 to Classic Point (Flatter), MGSW, $685,794.
2–Queengol, 120, f, 2, Flashback–Nechez Dawn, by Indian
Charlie. ($22,000 Wlg ’18 KEENOV; $90,000 2yo ’20 OBSMAR).
O-Saragol Stable Corp. & Johana Viana; B-John R. Penn (KY);
T-John W. Sadler. $20,000.
3–Heels Up, 120, f, 2, Twirling Candy–Tale Untold, by Tale of
the Cat. ($17,000 RNA Wlg ’18 KEENOV; $65,000 Ylg ’19
KEESEP; $350,000 2yo ’20 OBSAPR). O-Karl Watson, Michael E.
Pegram, & Paul Weitman; B-Two Stamps Stables (KY); T-Bob
Baffert. $12,000.
Margins: 7HF, NO, HF. Odds: 5.10, 5.70, 10.40.
Also Ran: Private Mission, Canoodling, Miss Costa Rica. Scratched: Plum Sexy, Varda.

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Sunday Insights: Mandella Unveils Bulleting $875k Pharoah Filly at Del Mar

Sponsored by Alex Nichols Agency

9th-DMR, 57K, Msw, 2yo, 5fT, post time: 4:30 p.m. ET

When a pricey yearling works a couple of bullets as a 2-year-old for meticulous preparer and Hall of Famer Richard Mandella, that debut bears watching. Sarah Kelly’s VELVET (American Pharoah) brought $875,000 last year at Keeneland September–fifth-highest of her sire’s yearlings in 2019–and began working in earnest in August, getting three bullets since, including four panels in :47 (1/87) Aug. 30 at Del Mar and five furlongs in 1:00 2/5 (1/21) Oct. 7 at Santa Anita. Out of 2010 GI Mother Goose S. runner-up Connie and Michael (Roman Ruler), Velvet comes from a family with plenty of black-type, none better than her fourth dam’s half-brother, champion and four-time Grade I winner Wajima (Bold Ruler).

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First Del Mar Victory By Apprentice Pyfer A Family Affair

Jessica Pyfer's win aboard Summer Love in Friday's second race at Del Mar was a multi-layered joy for the 22-year-old apprentice rider.

It was her first victory at the seaside track north of San Diego, Calif., and the fifth of her burgeoning career, which triggers the step from a 10- to seven-pound weight allowance, the initial sign of accomplishment for apprentice riders. And it came after getting a leg up from her stepfather, trainer Phil D'Amato. To that point, D'Amato starters had been 0-for-12 at the Bing Crosby meeting.

“It's very special to win here,” Pyfer said. “I've been coming here since I was a little girl, six or seven years old, and it's like my second home. Every summer I used to come here and idolize the jockeys in the room and now I'm one of them.

“To win for my dad is even more special. He's the man who helped me through the years and has helped me get my riding career started. To him I'm very thankful.”

Summer Love, a Kentucky-bred 3-year-old daughter of Summer Front, had one victory in five career starts and was 0-for-3 in Southern California since coming under the care of D'Amato in early summer following two races in Florida for trainer Michael Stidham.

Jessica Pyfer, soaking wet from an initiation by fellow riders, celebrates her first win at Santa Anita

A pair of optional claiming level tries here last summer with first Abel Cedillo and then Ricky Gonzalez in the saddle proved fruitless. Pyfer got the call for a $25,000 claiming event at Santa Anita on Oct. 3 at Santa Anita and the result was a fourth-place finish, the best of the filly's career other than her maiden win.

Summer Love was the 7-2 second choice on the morning line Friday behind 5-2 Invincibella, but they were virtual co-favorites $2.70-1 going into the gate.

Summer Love sped to a clear lead at the start, was in front by four lengths at the midpoint of the mile run on dirt, padded the lead to five turning for home and won by 4 3/4 lengths to the cheers of Pyfer's racetrack family and owners from the Agave Racing Stable and Little Red Feather partnership.

Pyfer, born in Denver, Colo., stands 5' 2” and weighs in at 110 pounds. She is a college (Azusa Pacific) graduate who has spent her whole life on or near horses.

Pyfer's mother, Sherri Alexander, has been a horsewoman and exercise rider since her youth. She was seven months pregnant with Jessica and galloping horses in California before going to Denver to give birth. She had her daughter on the backs of ponies and horses very soon afterward and Jessica competed in her first riding event as a 4-year-old.

Sherri returned to California when Jessica was five for an opportunity to gallop horses for trainer Mark Glatt in Southern California. That led to a further galloping opportunity with the late trainer Mike Mitchell where she and his then assistant, D'Amato, met and became friendly. In due course, D'Amato took over training many of Mitchell's horses after he passed, while his friendship with Sherri evolved to the point where it led to marriage.

Growing up, Jessica became a regular at the D'Amato barn and, when she wasn't in school, also was riding horses in events whenever and wherever she could. When she turned 16, she got a racetrack license and began galloping horses for D'Amato as well as other trainers, something she delighted in around her book work for the next six years. Her parents encouraged her to go on with her schooling and she even took the law school entrance test (LSAT) and did well enough on it that that door was open to her. But still her passion for the horses was strong and growing stronger and then — it led to a “moment” for her.

“I was at home with my family at dinner one night,” she recalled. “I'd finished college and I'd been galloping lots of horses. I even got asked by (Hall of Fame trainer) Richard Mandella to gallop some of his horses. That really got me to thinking about what I wanted to do. And then out of the blue my dad says: 'Go ahead and do it. If you're going to be a rider, this is the time for you to try. Go ahead.'”

Asked if there were personal or family rituals established for celebrating big victories, Pyfer replied in the negative. Then her eyes lit up above the mask covering the lower half of her face.

“I'll start a tradition now,” she said. “We'll pick a restaurant and go out to dinner.”

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Del Mar’s Hollywood Turf Cup Could Have East Coast Flavor

Del Mar Thoroughbred Club racing secretary David Jerkens reports there is serious interest from several eastern trainers with likely runners for Del Mar's Grade 2 Hollywood Turf Cup scheduled for Friday, Nov. 27. The $200,000 race will be contested at a mile and one-half on the Jimmy Durante Turf Course.

Trainer Brad Cox has indicated his multiple-stakes winner Arklow, most recently seen running sixth in the G1 Breeders' Cup Turf at Keeneland, might be on board for the marathon. Trainer Mike Maker is considering two of his route runners in Big Agenda and Aquaphobia. The latter was a Grade 1 winner on the grass this year.

Also possible for the seventh local edition of the stakes is the German stakes winner Laccario for trainer Andreas Wohler, as well as trainer Graham Motion's Ziyad, a European import who ran third in the G3 Sycamore Stakes at Keeneland on Oct. 15 in his initial U.S. start.

The Hollywood Turf Cup will be part of a seven-stakes-all-on-the-grass bonanza that starts on Thanksgiving Day (Nov. 26) and runs through the track's closing afternoon on Sunday, Nov. 29.

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