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Frazier, White and Flag de Lune Join Washington Racing Hall of Fame

Jockey Basil Frazier, Grade I-winning mare Flag de Lune (Flag Officer), and racing writer/broadcaster Jon White will be inducted into the Washington Racing Hall of Fame this summer, Emerald Downs announced Wednesday.

Washington's Horse of the Year in 1984, Flag de Lune was a multiple stakes winner on dirt, including the inaugural running of the Longacres Lassies S., and became a Grade I winner on turf when she won the the 1984 Ramona H. at Del Mar.

A native of Spokane, Washington, Frazier rode in Canada and the United States, retiring in 1985 with 2,218 career victories. Frazier's crowning moment was a dramatic victory aboard Times Rush in the 1974 Longacres Mile.

Another native of Spokane, White has been a local and national force in racing media for over five decades. Beginning with Daily Racing Form as chart-caller at age 19, White has been a publicist, television host, morning-line maker and steward, his byline appearing in The BloodHorse, Los Angeles Times, Thoroughbred Record, Canadian Horse, and The Washington Thoroughbred, among others.

White currently writes a weekly column for Xpressbet.com, appears weekly on Steve Byk's national racing show, and produces morning lines for Santa Anita and Del Mar, including the morning lines for eight Breeders' Cups.

“What a tremendous honor it is for this Washington-bred to go into the Washington Racing Hall of Fame,” White said. “I consider it to be the pinnacle of my career in racing. I just wish that my father [Quentin White] was still alive to see this. As a lifelong racing fan, he'd be over the moon.”

The official induction ceremony will be held Aug. 10 at Emerald Downs. Also to be honored at the ceremony, longtime trainer and former NFL and University of Washington running back Junior Coffey will be presented with the 2024 Lifetime Achievement award.

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Breeders’ Cup Classic Odds? Linemaker Jon White Tabs Knicks Go As Early Favorite

Santa Anita Morning Line Maker Jon White has installed a pair of Brad Cox trainees, recent Grade 3 Lukas Classic Stakes winner Knicks Go and top 3-year-old Essential Quality, as the early 5-2 and 3-1 favorites among a list 12 Breeders' Cup Classic hopefuls. To be run on Nov. 6 at Del Mar, the 38th running of the Classic offers a purse of $6 million.

“At this point, I expect Knicks Go to be sent off as the Classic favorite,” said White in his weekly XpressBet.com column. “But I also think it's a pretty close call between Knicks Go and Essential Quality.” A winner of five out of his six starts this year, Godolphin's homebred Essential Quality comes off a win in the Grade 1 Travers Stakes on Aug. 28.

“As for Essential Quality, I think there is a chance that he ends up being the favorite when the Classic field breaks from the gate,” White continued. “After all, Essential Quality has been the favorite in every single one of his nine career starts. He's won two of the nation's premier races for 3-year-olds, the Belmont and the Travers. The only time Essential Quality has been defeated, he had a very wide trip and finished (a close) fourth in the Kentucky Derby.”

White also weighed in on a pair of highly regarded sophomores based at Santa Anita—Doug O'Neill's Hot Rod Charlie and Bob Baffert's Kentucky Derby winning Medina Spirit.

“Hot Rod Charlie is going into the Classic off a terrific win in the (Grade 1) Pennsylvania Derby in which he received a 111 Beyer Speed Figure,” said White. “That's the highest Beyer in a race at a mile or longer by a 3-year-old this year. Essential Quality's top Beyer is the 109 he got when he won the Belmont.

“Medina Spirit won Santa Anita's Grade 1 Awesome Again Stakes by five lengths last Saturday when facing his elders for the first time. It's certainly to Medina Spirit's credit that he not only clobbered older horses, he beat the winner of this year's Pacific Classic (Tripoli) and Santa Anita Handicap (Idol). He also got a strong 107 Beyer, his best figure yet.”

White, who will be making the morning line for his seventh Breeders' Cup World Championships on Nov. 5 and 6, lists the following 12 horses as his top Classic prospects: Knicks Go (5-2), Essential Quality (3-1), Hot Rod Charlie (5-1), Medina Spirit (6-1), Art Collector (10-1), Max Player (10-1), Maxfield (12-1), Tripoli (15-1), Dr Post (20-1), Happy Saver (20-1), Idol (30-1) and Stilleto Boy (30-1).

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Million Dollar Baby: Spielberg Tops Sunday’s Bob Hope At Del Mar

SF Racing, Starlight Racing or Madaket Stables, et al's Spielberg, a $1-million yearling purchase at last year's Keeneland September Yearling Sale, takes the next step in his racing career at Del Mar on Sunday as he heads a field of six juveniles in the seventh edition of the G3 Bob Hope Stakes, a seven-furlong spin that carries a $100,000 purse.

Del Mar's morning line maker Jon White has hung the chestnut colt as the 6-5 favorite in the extended sprint, a race named for the show business icon who laid the path for his big Hollywood breakout when he became good pals with Bing Crosby during post-race parties at the shore oval in its first season (1937). Crosby and Hope went on to make nine “Road to….” movies, considered by many to be the most successful “buddy” pictures ever.

Spielberg, of course, has a Hollywood connection all his own, having been named for Steven Spielberg, the towering Tinsel Town figure who has proven to be one of cinema's quintessential figures as a director, producer and screenwriter with dozens and dozens of major movie credits on his ledger.

Spielberg, the racehorse, is a son of the top stallion Union Rags and has had a four-race career this season that has seen him twice go stakes-placed in Grade I races and then finally find the winner's circle in a straight maiden race at Del Mar on November 1. Trainer Bob Baffert sends his charge back two weeks later and will have the meet's leading rider, Abel Cedillo, in the tack for his run in the Hope.

Here's the full field for the Sunday stakes in post-position order with riders and morning line odds:

Reddam Racing's Ambivalent (Mario Gutierrez, 7/2); Spielberg; Drakos or Hanson's Weston (Drayden Van Dyke, 3-1); Saratoga West's Coastal Kid (Tyler Baze, 15-1); Tina and Jerome Moss' Red Flag (Victor Espinoza, 6-1), and Eric Homme's Uncle Boogie (Flavien Prat, 5-1).

Spielberg's chief threat would appear to be Weston, a gelded son of the War Front stallion Hit It a Bomb who has a pair of wins under his belt, including a tally in the Best Pal Stakes during the Del Mar summer meet. His last start saw him chase home Dr. Schivel and Spielberg in the Grade I Del Mar Futurity on September 7. The bay since has put in a series of sharp workout at Santa Anita for trainer and part-owner Ryan Hanson.

Ambivalent will have his backers in the sprint, too. The Constitution colt, a $550,000 2-year-old-in-training purchase earlier this year in Florida, is still a maiden, but it isn't for want of trying. This will be his sixth start and he's got a pair of stakes placings on his resume, as well as a pair of second-place finishes in straight maiden races. He runs out of the stable of trainer Doug O'Neill.

First post Sunday is the usual 12:30 p.m. with the featured Hope scheduled to go off at approximately 4 p.m.

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Does Cezanne Justify The Hype Of Previous Baffert Stars?

Cezanne, who topped Fasig-Tipton's sale of two-year-olds in training last year at Gulfstream Park when he fetched a final bid of $3.65 million, kicked off his racing career with a 2 1/2-length victory in a 6 1/2-furlong maiden race last Saturday at Santa Anita in Arcadia, Calif.

Cezanne was sent away as an overwhelming 2-5 favorite and posted a final time of 1:16.13. Leading jockey Flavian Prat rode the Kentucky-bred three-year-old colt by two-time Horse of the Year Curlin.

Bob Baffert trains Cezanne for owners Mrs. John Magnier, Michael Tabor, Michael B. Smith and St. Elias Stable.

“Cezanne was credited with a 90 Beyer Speed Figure,” said Jon White, Santa Anita's longtime morning-line oddsmaker. “Considering he was making his career debut as a three-year-old, I wondered how a 90 Beyer stacks up against the debut Beyers for Arrogate, West Coast and Justify. They also debuted at the age of three for Baffert.

And they all went on to be voted an Eclipse Award that same year as the champion three-year-old male (Arrogate in 2016, West Coast in 2017 and Justify in 2018).

“Because there had been so much hype for Cezanne's debut, some probably expected to see him win by a bigger margin and get a higher Beyer. But a 90 is a lot higher than Arrogate's 80 Beyer in his career debut. And keep in mind that after Arrogate's debut, what he did later that year was extraordinary.”

In the first start of Arrogate's career, he finished third in a six-furlong maiden race at Los Alamitos on April 17, 2016. Later in the year he won the Travers by 13 ½ lengths while breaking Saratoga's track record for 1 ¼ miles.

In his final start at three, Arrogate won the Breeders' Cup Classic at Santa Anita beating California Chrome and other older horses.

“What Cezanne's 90 Beyer is comparable to was West Coast's figure in the first start of his career when he got a 91,” White noted.

West Coast began his career by finishing second in a one-mile maiden race at Santa Anita on Feb. 18, 2017. Later in the year he won the Travers and the Pennsylvania Derby before finishing third in the Breeders' Cup Classic at Del Mar.

“Justify's debut Beyer went through the roof, a 104, when he won his first race by a huge margin,” White said. “That really was some performance. Justify showed everyone right from the start what an outstanding equine athlete he was.”

Bursting on the scene early in 2018 at Santa Anita, Justify registered a 9 1/2-length victory in a seven-furlong maiden race on Feb. 18. He subsequently won the Santa Anita Derby and swept the Triple Crown, then was retired after the Belmont Stakes. Justify won all six of his career starts.

“Cezanne raced a bit greenly in his first start and should improve with that race under his belt,” White said. “I also think there's a good chance that he will do well when he goes farther. Baffert has said that he believes Cezanne has the potential to have a big second half of the year like Arrogate and West Coast.

“So it's sure going to be interesting to see what Cezanne can do during the rest of the year.”

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