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Smooth Like Strait, Going Global Headliners In Saturday’s Del Mar Stakes Doubleheader

Del Mar will present a stakes doubleheader Saturday with the 48th running of the Grade 2, $250,000 Eddie Read Stakes being one of the offerings and the 54th edition of the Grade 2, $200,000 San Clemente Stakes being the other.

The pair of black type, added-money affairs will highlight an 11-race card that has a first post of 2 p.m.

The Eddie Read, named for Del Mar's long-time publicity director, has drawn a field of seven solid older stakes aces, including Cannon Thoroughbred's Smooth Like Strait and LNJ Foxwoods' United. They'll run a mile and one-eighth on the Jimmy Durante Turf Course in Race 8 on the program.

Then the San Clemente, named for the Orange Country beach town just above the Marines' Camp Pendelton base north of the track, will go forth with a dozen 3-year-old fillies in the gate for a one-mile spin on the grass that is scheduled to be Race 10.

The Irish filly Going Global, a stakes winner of all four of her U.S. starts this year, appears a stout choice and surely the one to beat in the San Clemente, which serves as a key prep for the track's championship race for sophomore fillies – the Grade 1, $300,000 Del Mar Oaks at nine furlongs on Saturday, Aug. 21.

Here's the field for the Eddie Read with weights and riders: OXO Equine's Vintage Print (121, Adam Beschizza); United (121, Flavine Prat); Agave Racing Stable or Sam-Son Farm's Say the Word (123, Mike Smith); Agave Racing Stable or Sam-Son Farm's Count Again (121, Joe Bravo); Amerman Racing's Award Winner (123, Juan Hernandez); Smooth Like Strait (125, Umberto Rispoli), and Brinkerhoff or Grayson Jr.'s Restrainedvengence (121, Tyler Baze).

The San Clemente lineup looks like this: Perry and Ramona Bass' Pizzazz (120, Kyle Frey); Dubb, Gevertz or Nentwig, et al's Going Global (1232, Prat); Bernsen, Lambert or Hale's Founder's Day (118, Baze); Branham or Naify's Freedom Flyer (120, Victor Espinoza); Slam Dunk Racing or Platts' Tetragonal (120, Bravo); Strand Beach's Equilove (120, Ricky Gonzalez); Derrick Fisher's Jibber Jabber (118, Geovanni Franco); Roncelli Family Trust and Roney's Dramatizer (118, Edwin Maldonado); Kaleem Shah's Madone (123, Henandez); Schumer or Screnci's Karakatsie (118, Kent Desormeaux); SF Racing's Nimbostratus (120, Abel Cedillo), and Harris Farms' Closing Remarks (123, Rispoli).

Smooth Like Straight, trained by Mike McCarthy, comes into the Read off a front-running tally in the Grade 1 Shoemaker Mile at Santa Anita on May 31. The handy 4-year-old by sprint champion Midnight Lute is a seven-time winner who has banked $933,823 and could take a bunch of catching Saturday.

United has won eight races and more than $1.5 million over a 19-race career thus far. The 6-year-old gelding by Giant's Causeway won the Eddie Read last year.

In the San Clemente, Going Global, a daughter of the Irish stallion Mehmas, won only one of four starts in her native land as a 2-year-old, but has done nothing but win with her shift stateside. She is conditioned by Phil D'Amato.

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Mandella May Try Pacific Classic Next After United’s Eddie Read Score

Hall of Fame trainer Richard Mandella fired one of his big guns Sunday at Del Mar near San Diego, Calif., and the boom shook the grounds and might reverberate forward to the shore track's biggest race of the season.

The veteran trainer gave Flavien Prat a leg up on his turf ace United for the $200,000 Eddie Read Stakes at nine furlongs on grass and watched him walk his beat for an impressive half-length tally.

Then he shook up a couple of turf writers afterwards when he said he's seriously considering Del Mar's signature race – the $500,000, Grade 1 TVG Pacific Classic – as a next start for his ace even though the big chestnut son of Giant's Causeway has never run on the dirt.

“…this horse is training so well on the dirt, month after month, that I'm going to consider running him in the Pacific Classic,” Mandella said immediately following the victory. “I've been thinking all summer about it.”

That surprise set up a potential showdown between possibly the best grass horse on the grounds with possibly the best dirt horse in Maximum Security, who won his TVG Pacific Classic prep yesterday in a photo-finish thriller in the Grade 2 San Diego Handicap.

United ran the Grade 2 Read distance in 1:46.71 and, as the 7/5 favorite, paid $4.80, $3.40 and $2.60 across the board. The $120,000 share of the winner's purse pushed his bankroll to $1,453,549 for owner Larry, Nanci and Jaime Ross, who race under the name LNJ Foxwoods.

Finishing second in the Read was Red Baron's Barn and Rancho Temescal's Sharp Samurai and third was CYBT, Gevertz, Gitomer, et al's Neptune's Storm.

United, a 5-year-old gelding, is racing in some of the best form of his life. He's now three-for-three on the year after winning a pair of Grade 2 turf tests at Santa Anita earlier in the year.

Mandella, it is recalled, surprised folks at Del Mar previously in 2015 when he unexpectedly entered his filly Beholder in the TVG Pacific Classic against the boys and she proceeded to towrope them by more than eight lengths in a stunning performance.

The trainer has four wins in the Pacific Classic already.

FLAVIEN PRAT (United, winner) – “The race came up perfect. He broke real well and we got a great spot. We went along fine and when I asked him, he just went on with it. When you ride a really good horse like this, it makes things easier. Good horses do good things; they put you in good spots. It's all easier with his kind.”

RICHARD MANDELLA (United, winner) – “We ran him short (less distance) just to pick his head up. Sometimes you run them long too many times they get stale. But this horse is training so well on the dirt, month after month, I'm going to consider running him in the Pacific Classic. (United has run 12 times on turf and twice on synthetics in his career). I've been thinking all summer about it. We'll think about the Del Mar Handicap on turf, too, but if he keeps training on dirt as well as he has been…”

FRACTIONS: :23.88 :47.84 1:11.68 1:35.27 1:46.71

The victory in the Eddie Read was the third stakes win of the session so far for rider Prat and his third in the race itself. He now has 47 stakes wins at Del Mar.

The victory in the Eddie Read was the first stakes score of the meet for trainer Mandella, but his third in the Read. He now has 65 stakes wins at Del Mar, sixth most among all trainers.

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United Tabbed As Morning Line Favorite For Sunday’s Eddie Read Stakes

LNJ Foxwoods' United, trained by Hall of Famer Richard Mandella, was named the 8-5 favorite on John Lies' morning line for Sunday's $200,000, Grade II Eddie Read Stakes at Del Mar.

A 5-year-old son of Giant's Causeway, United will break from the outside post in a field of seven for the 1 1/8-mile run over the Jimmy Durante Turf Course which often determines the top grass horse of the meeting.

United was last seen at Del Mar running second as the even-money favorite, beaten a neck by Oscar Dominguez, in the Hollywood Turf Cup on December 1 of last year. United is 2-for-2 in Grade II stakes starts in 2020 – the San Marcos and Charlie Whittingham at Santa Anita – to boost his career earnings to $1,133,549.

The field from the rail: Bowie's Hero (Tiago Pereira. 4-1); Originaire (Umberto Rispoli, 9-2); Sharp Samurai (Juan Hernandez, 5-1); Combatant (Jorge Velez, 12-1); Cleopatra's Strike (Abel Cedillo, 8-1); Neptune's Storm (Drayden Van Dyke, 6-1), and United (Flavien Prat).

Sunday's other stakes offering, the $125,000 California Dreamin' at 1 1/16 miles on the turf, drew a field of 11 California bred or sired older males. Paradise Road Ranch's Camino Del Paraiso, trained by O.J. Jauregui, drew the rail and was tabbed the 5-2 morning line choice.

Defending summer meeting training champion Doug O'Neill will have a pair of representatives in Whooping Jay and Irish Heatwave. “They're both in good form and even though they both drew way outside the rail is at zero so that helps,” O'Neill said this morning. “It's a bigger field than I expected but regardless they're both doing well and we're optimistic they'll run well.”

The field from the rail: Camino Del Paraiso (Drayden Van Dyke); Galilean (Flavien Prat, 3-1); Brandothebartender (Umberto Rispoli, 15-1); Desmond Doss (Tiago Pereira, 15-1); Grinning Tiger (Heriberto Figueroa, 12-1); Loud Mouth (Juan Hernandez, 20-1); Ultimate Bango (Ruben Fuentes, 8-1); Three Ay Em (Mike Smith, 12-1); Whooping Jay (Mario Gutierrez, 15-1); Take the One O One (Jose Valdivia, Jr., 10-1), and Irish Heatwave (Abel Cedillo, 6-1).

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Del Mar To Add Monday Card On July 27 As Make-Up Date; Reschedules Stakes For July 25-27

The Del Mar Thoroughbred Club in Del Mar, Calif., received approval from the California Horse Racing Board to add Monday, July 27, to the live racing calendar to make up in part for the three lost days (July 17-19) due to an outbreak of COVID-19 among the Southern California jockey colony.

The track is expected to request two additional as-yet undetermined days later in the meet that runs through Sept. 7. The regular schedule is Fridays through Sundays, with racing now scheduled on Monday, July 27, and closing day, Monday, Sept. 7.

“We're looking forward to resuming racing on Friday, July 24,” said Del Mar Thoroughbred Club executive vice president for racing Tom Robbins. “Adding a race card on Monday, July 27 provides our horsemen and women with additional opportunities to run their horses.”

Racing secretary David Jerkens said entries for the July 27 card would be drawn on Friday, July 24.

“We applaud Del Mar's management for quickly adapting during these unprecedented times,” said Nick Alexander, chairman of the Thoroughbred Owners of California. “Winning a race at Del Mar is special and a four-day race week will provide our members with additional opportunities to do so.”

Three days of racing were cancelled this weekend after 15 jockeys tested positive for COVID-19. The tests were ordered after Hall of Famer Victor Espinoza and current leading Southern California jockey Flavien Prat tested positive last week. Swabs of all jockeys were taken on Tuesday, July 14, and protocol in San Diego County is that those who test positive may resume regular activities after an immediate 10-day quarantine, provided they are asymptomatic.

According to Del Mar officials, all but one of the Southern California jockeys who tested positive were at Los Alamitos on July 4, when Luis Saez and Martin Garcia – who subsequently tested positive for COVID-19 – flew to Southern California from the Midwest to ride that day's card.

Del Mar has rescheduled the four stakes scheduled for this weekend, including the Grade 2 San Diego Handicap expected to feature the return of last year's 3-year-old male champion, Maximum Security, making his debut for trainer Bob Baffert.

The new stakes lineup for the July 24-26 weekend:

Friday, July 24: Daisycutter Handicap (originally scheduled July 18) for fillies and mares, 3 and up at five furlongs on turf; the Fleet Treat Stakes for Golden State eligible California-bred or sired 3-year-old fillies going seven furlongs.
Saturday, July 25: G2 San Diego Handicap (originally scheduled July 18) for 3-year-olds and up going 1 1/16 miles; G2 San Clemente Stakes for 3-year-old fillies going one mile on turf; Smiling Tiger Stakes for 3-year-olds going six furlongs.
Sunday, July 26: G2 Eddie Read Stakes (originally scheduled July 19) for 3-year-olds and up going nine furlongs on turf; California Dreamin' Stakes for Golden State eligible California-bred or sired 3-year-olds and up going 1 1/16 miles on turf.

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