Del Mar | Horse Racing Free Tips

Never Be Enough Rallies Late For Kathryn Crosby Score On Del Mar Opening Day

Ron Charles and Samuel Gordon's mare Never Be Enough, a shipper from Golden Gate Fields in the Bay Area making her first stakes start stateside, lagged early in the one-mile Kathryn Crosby Stakes on the Del Mar lawn Saturday, then came running hard through the lane to capture the overnight by a length as the seaside track opened its fall racing season.

Tiago Pereira rode the winner, a 5-year-old daughter of the British sire Sir Percy bred in England. Her trainer is Manuel Badilla, who shipped his chestnut mare south, then rooted her home from his Golden Gate base.

Finishing second in the $75,000 turf test for fillies and mares was Branham, Baltas and McClanahan's Colonial Creed, who had three-quarters of a length on Donnie Crevier's Cordiality. Deborah McAnally Trust's She's Our Charm, the race favorite at 19-10, led for much of the trip, but was outrun late and finished fifth.

Never Be Enough, who covered the mile distance in 1:33.87, paid $14.80, $7.40 and $5.20 across the board. Colonial Creed returned $8.20 and $5.40 and Cordiality paid $4.20 to show.

The winner picked up a check for $46,740, increasing her earnings to $147,425. She's now finished first in seven of 27 starts, including races in Europe where she went over the jumps and tackled the boys on more than one occasion.

Three riders won two races each on the nine-race card – Mike Smith, Juan Hernandez and apprentice Alexis Centeno. Nine different trainers had winners during the afternoon.

Racing resumes at Del Mar on Sunday with first post at 12:30 p.m.

TIAGO PEREIRA (Never Be Enough, winner) – “My agent (Patty Sterling) spoke to the trainer (Manuel Badilla) this morning about this horse. He said she's got lots of speed and could go to the front. But if you go to the front, she's not going to finish. He said take a hold of her and get her to relax. Then get them in the straight. That's just what I did and when I asked the horse in the lane she had a great kick. Really good way to start the meet for me.”

MANUEL BADILLA (Never Be Enough, winner) – By phone from Golden Gate Fields: “I was a little nervous when she was last at the half-mile pole. Then I saw the fractions and I wasn't as nervous. This mare has a turn of foot and she's a real runner. The last race up here she beat a horse of mine (Blue Diva) I've won a couple stakes with. Back in Europe she ran against boys and in hurdles and on the flat. Talk about an iron horse. She'll ship back here Tuesday and we'll decide what's next from there.”

FRACTIONS: :22.59 :45.94 1:10.08 1:22.11 1:33.87

The stakes win was the first in the Kathryn Crosby for rider Pereira and his first of the meet. He now has nine stakes wins at Del Mar.

The stakes win was the first ever at Del Mar for trainer Badilla.

The winning owners are Ron Charles of Sunland, Calif., and his partner Samuel Gordon.

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Jockey J.C. Diaz Jr. Tests Positive For Coronavirus; Will Miss Part Of Del Mar Meet

Jockey Jean (J.C.) Diaz, Jr. has tested positive for the coronavirus but is asymptomatic and began self isolation at his Los Angeles area apartment Friday.

As part of Del Mar's protocols and procedures for dealing with the pandemic, all jockeys' room riders and personnel were tested in San Diego this week on either Wednesday or Thursday at Scripps Hospital in La Jolla. Before he came on site at Del Mar, Diaz was notified Friday morning that his test of a day earlier had been positive for the virus.

If Diaz remains asymptomatic – that is showing no signs of the virus – by the end of the isolation period, he could return to riding on Friday, November 13. Diaz, a 20-year-old native of San Juan, Puerto Rico, will miss the first two weekends of the Bing Crosby meeting.

“I take my hat off to Del Mar and all the people involved,” said Tony Matos, Diaz's agent. Matos has been booking mounts for riders since 1966 and lists Hall of Famers Angel Cordero and Laffit Pincay, Jr. among his former clients.

“Just like at Santa Anita, Del Mar is doing a great job with testing and procedures,” Matos said. “We all want to follow the rules and do whatever we can to keep everyone as safe as possible.”

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Margot’s Boy Hoping For ‘A Very Good Day’ In Del Mar’s Let It Ride

Ten 3-year-olds answered the call for Sunday's headliner at Del Mar, the seventh edition of the Let It Ride Stakes. It goes as a mile on the turf and offers a $75,000 purse.

Following the Hollywood theme of the fall Bing Crosby Season, the race was named for the manic 1989 comedy starring Richard Dreyfuss as a sick gambler who gets a hot tip and goes on an amazing one-day run at the track (it was filmed at old Hialeah). It's a good one to dial up if you're stuck at home avoiding the virus.

Sunday's turfer is headed by Margot's Boy, a California-bred gelding by Clubhouse Ride who has won three races, and Heywoods Beach, a Kentucky-bred Speightstown colt who has a pair of wins on his ledger. Margot's Boy is owned by Alfred Pais, trained by Craig Lewis and will be ridden by Tiago Pereira; he's been listed at 3-1 on the morning line. Heywoods Beach is owned by Hronis Racing, trained by John Sadler and will be ridden by Umberto Rispoli; he was hung at 7-2.

Here's the full field for the stakes from the rail out with riders and morning line odds:

A Venneri Racing or Lombardi's Goalie (Juan Hernandez, 12-1); MyRacehorsecom or Spendthrift Farm's Lane Way (Drayden Van Dyke, 4-1); Roadrunner Racing or Sayjay Racing's Strongconstitution (Abel Cedillo, 4-1); Reddam Racing's Rookie Mistake (Mario Gutierrez, 12-1); Heywoods Beach; Paula Capestro's Dominant Soul (Edwin Maldonado, 8-1); Margot's Boy; Coal Creek Farm's I'm Leaving You (Victor Espinoza, 30-1); David Bernsen, Jacobs or Lambert's Lure Him In (Tyler Baze, 12-1), and Doyle, Gonzalez or Gutierrez's Jammers Justice (Eswan Flores, 15-1).

Margot's Boy last raced October 18 at Santa Anita where was beaten a bit less than five lengths in the Grade 2 Twilight Derby. Prior to that he was second, beaten in a photo, in the G2 Del Mar Derby on September 6. Trainer Lewis also conditioned the horse's sire, who was a hard-knocking stakes winner and has become a hot commodity on the California breeding scene.

Heywoods Beach last ran in the aforementioned Del Mar Derby where he finished 10th in the nine-furlong grass test. His two victories so far were both on grass and both at a mile which, obviously, may bode well for him in the Let It Ride.

Lane Way closed fast to finish second in his most recent outing, an allowance test at a mile on the turf at Santa Anita on September 27. He's a colt by Into Mischief trained by Richard Mandella.

Strongconstitution, by the hot young Tapit sire Constitution, has finished on the board in all six of his lifetime starts. The $220,000 2-year-old purchase was stakes placed here last fall in the Bob Hope.

First post Sunday is at 12:30 p.m. PT

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Abel Cedillo Ready To Defend Bing Crosby Title; ‘Cup Will Keep Flavien Prat Away

Abel Cedillo relocated from the Northern to Southern California racing circuit for the Del Mar summer meeting of 2019 and proved he belonged by winning 25 races and finishing third in the rider standings behind Flavien Prat and Drayden Van Dyke.

Cedillo, a 31-year-old native of Guatemala, then polished his credentials by winning the Bing Crosby Season meeting, edging Van Dyke, 13-12. Cedillo's back, represented by veteran agent Tom Knust, and booked to ride all but one of the 18 races on the opening weekend cards when the meeting commences on Saturday.

“I feel great and I'm happy to be back (for the meeting),” Cedillo said Thursday by telephone. “I came down (to Southern California) to ride good horses and big races and that's what I've been doing, so I'm very happy about everything.”

Cedillo won 30 races at the 2020 summer meeting as Prat edged newcomer Umberto Rispoli, 50-49, for the riding title. But Cedillo had the honor of being chosen by trainer Bob Baffert to ride one of the world's best horses, Maximum Security, when Luis Saez tested positive for COVID-19. And Cedillo came through with victories in the San Diego Handicap and TVG Pacific Classic.

Saez returned as Maximum Security finished second to stablemate Improbable in the Awesome Again Stakes at Santa Anita on September 26 and will be aboard for the $6 million Longines Breeders' Cup Classic a week from Saturday. Cedillo will be here, working on that title defense.

Cedillo and Van Dyke were tied going into the final day of the 2019 Bing Crosby meeting. Cedillo won the first race, aboard Wound Tight for trainer Bob Hess, Jr., and the best Van Dyke could do on the day was two close runner-up finishes.

“I didn't come (south) thinking about winning meets, so it was great that it happened,” Cedillo said.

Prat has won the last two summer meet riding championships and three of the last four. But the 28-year-old Frenchman's only fall crown here came in 2017 which was, possibly not coincidentally, when Del Mar hosted the Breeders' Cup.

His chances of prevailing this year look severely compromised from the outset because of conflicts with the Breeders' Cup which starts its two-day run a week from today at Keeneland.

Prat was in Lexington, Ky., this morning planning to work two horses for trainer Simon Callaghan that he'll ride in Cup events: Harvest Moon in the $2 million Distaff and Madone in the $1 million Juvenile Fillies Turf. Harvest Moon won the Torrey Pines Stakes here last summer and Madone the Del Mar Juvenile Fillies Turf. Heavy rain in Kentucky resulted in postponement of those works until tomorrow, at which time Prat also will work 2019 TVG Pacific Classic winner Higher Power for trainer John Sadler.

Even if today's works had gone as scheduled, COVID protocols precluded Prat from returning to ride the opening weekend of the Bing Crosby meeting. So he will be replaced on eight scheduled mounts Saturday and remain in Kentucky through the Breeders' Cup the following weekend.

Thus, Prat will miss the first third of the 15-day Crosby season.

Agent Derek Lawson has Prat scheduled to ride seven of the 14 Breeders' Cup races and is working on one more possibility. Prat's best chance would appear to be Eddie Read Stakes winner United for Hall of Fame trainer Richard Mandella in the $4 million Longines Breeders' Cup Turf.

Rispoli and Juan Hernandez are the other Del Mar-based jockeys with Breeders' Cup calls. They'll ride here over the weekend – Rispoli has 16 scheduled mounts in 18 races and Hernandez 15 – before heading to the Bluegrass State.

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