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Upcoming Del Mar Stakes Feature Two-Year-Olds, Rock Your World

Four stakes that spotlight promising 2-year-olds, the second leg of the series for 3-year-olds, and the 69th running of the Yellow Ribbon for older fillies and mares on turf comprise a six-pack of added-money events for the fourth week of the meeting starting Thursday at Del Mar Thoroughbred Club in Del Mar, Calif.

The $100,000 California Thoroughbred Breeders' Association Stakes, at 5 ½ furlongs for California-bred 2-year-old fillies initiates things on Thursday. From a list of 12 nominations, a field of nine was entered Saturday with Jorge Periban-trained At the Spa significantly coming in off a victory in a $100,000 stakes at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, Calif., in June.

The post position draw was to be held later in the day. The field in alphabetical order with jockeys in parenthesis: At the Spa (Tyler Baze); Carmen Miranda (Giovanni Franco); Drizella (Juan Hernandez); Gianna's Wild Cat (Jessica Pyfer); Irish Wahine (Abel Cedillo); It's Simple (Mario Gutierrez); Ko Olina (Edwin Maldonado); Lion's Lair (Tiago Pereira) and Madiha (Umberto Rispoli).

Friday's feature is the $200,000 Grade 2 Sorrento Stakes for 2-year-old fillies, often a stepping stone to the $300,000 Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante near the end of the meeting. Bob Baffert, a seven-time Sorrento-winning trainer, has three of the 22 nominees.

Saturday card features the $200,000 Grade 2 Yellow Ribbon and the $200,000 Best Pal. The Yellow Ribbon, at 1 1/16 miles on the Jimmy Durante Turf Course, drew a dozen nominees topped by Simon Callaghan-trained Maxim Rate, winner of the Grade I Gamely at Santa Anita in May.

The Best Pal, often an identifier of potential for the $300,000 Grade 1 Runhappy Del Mar Futurity on closing day of the meeting, has 16 nominations, six of whom have been training outside California.

The week concludes Sunday with the $150,000 Grade 3 La Jolla, the second leg of the series for 3-year-olds, and the $100,000 Graduation Stakes for California-bred 2-year-olds.

John Sadler-trained Santa Anita Derby winner Rock Your World is among 15 nominations for the La Jolla, a return to turf racing for the son of Candy Ride after unsuccessful Triple Crown trail runs in the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes.

Fourteen were nominated to the Graduation, among them Luis Mendez-trained Big City Lights, a winner of two starts by a combined 19 ¾ lengths.

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Bing Crosby Nominations Promises Deep Field Of Sprinters At Del Mar

Seventeen horses, encompassing virtually all the top sprinters on the West Coast, have been nominated to Saturday's $300,000 Grade 1 Bing Crosby Stakes, assuring that the field will be a stellar one when it is set and post positions are drawn on Wednesday.

Trainer Mark Glatt finished first and third in the 2020 Crosby with Collusion Illusion and Law Abidin Citizen. He has those two plus Dr. Schivel nominated and said Sunday he might run all three.

Other marquee speedsters on the nomination list include 2020 Pat O'Brien winner C Z Rocket for Peter Miller; the trio of Ax Man, Eight Rings, and Gamine from the Bob Baffert barn; graded stakes winner Flagstaff from the John Sadler stable; and the double-quick Cal-bred Brickyard Ride out of the Craig Lewis barn.

Sadler said Flagstaff will skip the Bing Crosby and instead go in the seven-furlong Pat O'Brien here on August 28.

Baffert said the 4-year-old filly Gamine, a winner of six graded stakes in her last seven starts – four of them Grade 1s – is more likely to continue competing against her own gender elsewhere than take on males in the Bing Crosby.

But Gamine is one of 11 older fillies and mares nominated to next Sunday's Clement L. Hirsch, as is stablemate As Time Goes By. A 4-year-old daughter of Baffert-trained Triple Crown winner American Pharoah, As Time Goes By is one of three stakes winners at Santa Anita that are possibles for the Hirsch, a 1 1/16-mile main track event that usually determines the top older filly or mare of the meeting.

The others are Venetian Harbor and Warren's Showtime.

The 6-furlong Bing Crosby is a “Win & You're In” qualifier for the $2 million Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Sprint at Del Mar on November 6. The Clement L. Hirsch is likewise designated for the $2 million Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Distaff that same day.

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Sadler Seeks Repeat For Galilean In California Dreamin’, Starts Three in Daisycutter

Trainer John Sadler will send out defending champion Galilean in Sunday's featured $150,000 California Dreamin' Stakes and has a three-horse contingent in the $80,000 Daisycutter Handicap earlier in the program at Del Mar Thoroughbred Club in Del Mar, Calif.

At the very least, Sadler's charges figure to factor strongly in both events as the 64-year-old Pasadena native seeks to add to his 78 Del Mar stakes victories, second on the track's all-time list behind Bob Baffert.

Galilean, a 5-year-old son of Uncle Mo owned by West Point Thoroughbreds and partners, moved between rivals to get a clear lead entering the stretch and held on for a half-length victory as the 3-2 favorite in last year's California Dreamin', a 1 1/16-mile turf assignment for California breds. It was the fourth start in a seven-race 2020 campaign that has netted earnings of $217,098.

Sunday's title defense, however, is the 2021 debut for Galilean, ending an eight-month layoff since finishing fourth as the favorite in the Cary Grant Stakes in November during Del Mar's Bing Crosby fall meeting.

“It's a little different this year coming off a layoff, but he's a very good horse, doing well, and we're expecting good things,” Sadler said.

The field from the rail with riders and morning line odds: Desmond Doss (Abel Cedillo, 5-1); Wound Tight (Kent Desormeaux, 6-1); Unbridled Ethos (Ricky Gonzalez, 20-1); Secret Club (Tyler Baze, 30-1); Indian Peak (Flavien Prat, 8-1); Ward 'n Jerry (Trevor McCarthy, 8-1); Galilean (Joe Bravo, 4-1); Margot's Boy (Juan Hernandez, 12-1); Brandothebartender (Umberto Rispoli, 4-1) and North County Guy (Mario Gutierrez, 7-2).

In the Daisycutter, a five-furlong turf sprint for older California-bred fillies and mares, Sadler will saddle Constantia, Five Pics Please, and Bruja Escarlata for three different ownerships.

Constantia, bred and owned by Keith Abrahams, comes in off a win in the Mizdirection overnight and runner-up in the Grade 2 Monrovia, both at Santa Anita. Five Pics Please, owned by Desert Sun Stables, has a win, a second, and a third in three starts since joining the Sadler stable for her 2021 campaign.

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Bruja Escarlata, which translates from Spanish as “Scarlet Witch,” is owned by Hronis Racing. The 4-year-old daughter of Street Boss, a $185,000 purchase at a Florida sale in 2019, debuted with a victory at Los Alamitos in December and followed with wins on the turf at Santa Anita in February and the dirt there in March.

“Two of the fillies (Five Pics Please and Bruja Escarlata) are pretty fast and the other is a deep closer,” Sadler pointed out. “I think they all fit pretty well in there.”

The field from the rail with riders and morning line odds: Bulletproof One (Gonzalez, 4-1); Querelle (Hernandez, 6-1); Gypsy Spirit (Edwin Maldonado, 20-1); Constantia (Jose Valdivia, Jr., 6-1); Superstition (Prat, 5-2); Lenzi's Lucky Lady (Desormeaux, 20-1); Five Pics Please (Rispoli, 15-1); Never for Money (Giovanni Franco, 20-1); Rakassah (Jessica Pyfer, 6-1) and Bruja Escarlata (Baze, 4-1). Also eligible: Sadie Bluegrass (Brayan Pena, 15-1) and Acting Out (Bravo, 15-1).

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Fans, Horsemen Alike Ready To Celebrate ‘Real’ Del Mar Summer

Peter Miller won a fourth Del Mar summer season training title in 2020, equaling the number of fall crowns for him at the place Miller refers to as his “home” track.

But the 55-year-old Encinitas and Manhattan Beach resident readily admits that it didn't feel the same as the other seven. Not in a time in which COVID-19 protocols for most of the meeting required stands empty of all but “essential” personnel and masks on the faces of everyone there in person.

“Last year felt abnormal, weird, very strange, surreal,” Miller said Monday during a break from morning workouts. “You'd win a race and it felt like you'd won a workout.”

Miller won 28 races, eight more than runner-up Phil D'Amato. Six came in stakes, to raise Miller's career total to 38 over the last 14 years. And none of those horses returned to a winner's circle ceremony of picture-taking, reward-presenting, hand-shaking, back-slapping and all-around smiling with success in accordance with decades of racing tradition.

So count Miller, Del Mar Thoroughbred Club CEO Joe Harper, and racetrackers of all sorts, who are looking forward to the return of fans and fanfare when the 82nd summer season commences a 31-day meeting on Friday.

“Real live people, that's terrific,” said Harper, in his 44th year at the track helm. “I spent a lot of time walking around talking to myself last year.

“It's just great. Having people around is what Del Mar is all about. It's not your average racetrack. It's a party, concerts and all the things that make people happy. It was kind of sad out here last year when your handle is $200,000 on track and $25 million off track. That was kind of a fun day, but it was just weird.”

“It's a credit to the whole industry that we got through COVID as well as we did,” said trainer John Sadler, No. 2 for stakes wins (78) in track history. “Now we're all happy and excited about having a return to normal.”

“We had gone through (COVID 2020 protocols) at Santa Anita before we came down here last summer, so we were kind of prepared,” said Hall of Fame trainer Richard Mandella. “But the stands without fans, the quiet during the races … the weird feeling never went away.”

Billy Koch heads the Little Red Feather racing partnership group, whose all-out-for-fun approach, to racing and life, is especially suited to Del Mar. Little Red Feather's Red King won the Del Mar Handicap and was voted the top grass horse of the meeting but only a handful of partners were able to celebrate on the tarmac down by the rail.

“We love it down here and Del Mar is the premier meeting we point to,” Koch said. “So it was difficult that a lot of our partners and fans couldn't get in to see the horses run. But Del Mar did a good job of getting some in to see the races and we appreciated that.

“We did nothing last year (in the way of pre-meet partying), but we're back this year and champing at the bit. Little Red Feather Nation will be out in force and we're looking forward to a really good meeting.”

Del Mar opens its summer season on a Friday for the third time since 1970 and the sixth time in its history. Before last year's COVID-forced no-count, the official totals were 42,562 on the grounds in 2016 and 11,998 in 1970. The other Friday openings came in 1959 and 1941.

Opening Friday 2021 won't approach 2016 – which ranks as the 10th-highest turnout in track history – but it figures to be a happy contrast to 2020. Del Mar will open with 100% capacity in its seating areas throughout the facility and an approximately 16,000 sellout has been announced. This decision was made in accordance with state and county public health guidelines.

All fans wishing to attend must obtain a seating package in advance of their arrival. Admission tickets and parking passes are included in the package.

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