Friday Insights: ‘Rising Stars’ Return at Churchill, Del Mar

8th-CD, $127k, Alw, 3yo/up, f/m, post time: 4:33 p.m. ET
Bass Stables' beautifully bred BANDITA (Gun Runner) could not have been more impressive in her lone racetrack appearance to date, as she led every step of the seven furlongs on Gulfstream debut Jan. 29 to score by nearly nine lengths en route to a 'TDN Rising Star' nod (video). The $350,000 Keeneland September grad is unraced since. The bay is out of a daughter of four-time stakes winner and Grade III-placed Simplify (Pulpit), the dam of Bandita's stakes-winning full-sister Optionality and of SW Simple Surprise (Cowboy Cal), whose two-time Grade I-winning son Gunite (Gun Runner) was runner-up in last Saturday's GI Breeders' Cup Sprint and is a new addition to the stallion roster at Coolmore in Kentucky. TJCIS PPs

7th-GP, $50k, Msw, 2yo, f, 7f, 3:04 p.m ET
Fans of the 1960s band the Turtles and handicappers alike might flock to the debuting HAPPY TOGETHER (Speightstown) here. The Jan. 23 is the first foal from the stakes-placed Coexistence (Violence), who was purchased by the Lyster family's Ashview Farm for $190,000 out of the 2019 Keeneland November Sale. Herself a $425,000 KEESEP purchase by Robert and Lawana Low, the bay is bred on the very successful cross of Speighstown over Medaglia d'Oro responsible for the likes of Grade I winners Rock Fall, Olympiad, Competitionofideas and this year's GI Del Mar Futurity hero Prince of Monaco. TJCIS PPs

3rd-DMR, $63k, Alw/OC, 2yo, f, 5fT, 4:29 p.m. ET
JULIAS DREAM (Flameaway), a $15,000 KEESEP yearling, blossomed into a $180,000 OBS April juvenile after working an eighth of a mile in a slick :9 4/5. The chestnut filly made the very most of her first trip to the races in a course-and-distance maiden Aug. 6, winning off by 5 1/2 lengths to become a 'Rising Star' and connections could hardly be faulted for taking a crack in the GI Del Mar Debutante, where she finished down the field behind fellow 'Rising Star' Tamara (Bolt d'Oro). The Talla Racing colorbearer gets Flavien Prat for this return to action. TJCIS PPs

 

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Del Mar to Host 2025 Breeders’ Cup

The Breeders' Cup, only days removed from the 2023 renewal held at Santa Anita, will return to California in 2025 with Del Mar as the host site, the organization announced in a release late Wednesday afternoon. Del Mar also is scheduled to hold the event in 2024, marking three straight years the Breeders' Cup will be held in California and two straight at Del Mar.

“Our return to Del Mar in back-to-back years marks the continuation of a wonderful collaboration and successful partnership, both with our friends at the track and with the greater San Diego area, demonstrating our continued commitment to California horse racing,” said Drew Fleming, President and CEO of Breeders' Cup Limited. “We look forward to once again gathering where the turf meets the surf as the world's best Thoroughbreds put on an incredible show.”

The 2025 edition, to be held Oct. 31 and Nov. 1, will be the fourth running of the Breeders' Cup at Del Mar. The San Diego-area track also hosted the Breeders' Cup in 2017 and 2021. In 2021, Del Mar handled $182,908,409 on the two-day event. This year at Santa Anita, total all-sources, global common-pool handle for the two-day Breeders' Cup was $176,281,989.

“We couldn't be more excited about hosting back-to-back Breeders' Cup World Championships and welcoming the very best in international racing back to the town of Del Mar and the greater San Diego area,” said Joe Harper, CEO of the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club. “The Breeders' Cup represents the pinnacle in world-class racing and the organization's willingness to return here again is a testament to the quality of our racing facilities, our idyllic weather, and the warm hospitality shown to our visitors by the local community.”

The last time a track hosted consecutive Breeders' Cups was from 2012 to 2014, when it was run three straight years at Santa Anita.

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Del Mar Ready For Bing Crosby Season Friday

Entries were drawn Tuesday for the eight-race Friday card that kicks off the 13-day Bing Crosby Season at Del Mar, the track said in a release Wednesday afternoon.

This year's stakes schedule is very similar to last year. Out of 15, nine are graded. Over $2 million in purse money will be up for grabs over the course of the four-week meet, including the GI Hollywood Derby on Saturday, Dec. 2 and the GI Matriarch S. on Sunday, Dec. 3.

“Where we're laid out on the calendar is perfect,” Del Mar racing secretary David Jerkens said. “Mark Casse is sending a small string. Graham Motion. Wesley Ward has a few horses here. Obviously, the Breeders' Cup has just wrapped up but based on past history we've received quite a bit of an influx from the Chad Brown and Christophe Clement barns back east.”

Click here for the complete stakes scheduled.

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Jockey Frank Alvarado Picks Up 4,000th Career Victory

Veteran jockey Frank Alvarado, a mainstay in Northern California throughout the 21st century, picked up his 4,000th career victory in Race 2 on Sunday at Golden Gate Fields aboard five-year-old mare Shout It Out (Boisterous). 54-year-old Alvarado had to wait out a photo finish before giving an exuberant fist pump when the order of finish was posted. He was greeted in the winner's circle post-race by family, friends, racing officials, and fellow members of the Golden Gate riding colony. Alvarado's mounts have accrued $87.8 million throughout a long and successful career that began in his native Panama in 1984. Alvarado's first career win came at Panama's Hipodromo Presidente Ramon Racecourse on April 2, 1984.

Among Alvarado's top mounts currently in training are champion Northern California sprinter Top Harbor (Harbor the Gold) and recent Santa Anita stakes-winning 2-year-old Grand Slam Smile (Smiling Tiger).

 

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