kent desormeaux | Horse Racing Free Tips

All Three Stakes Winners Doing Well After Saturday Scores

The three stakes-winning horses from Saturday at Del Mar Thoroughbred Club in Del Mar, Calif., showed no ill effects from their efforts and will be given some well-earned rest before “to be determined” next assignments.

Taken in order in which they were achieved:

Three Diamond Farm's Field Pass, a 4-year-old son of Lemon Drop Kid, recorded career win number eight in his 23rd career start in the $250,000 Grade 2 Seabiscuit Handicap and the $150,000 winner's share of the purse boosted his career earnings to $913,143. Nolan Ramsey is trainer Mike Maker's assistant in charge of West Coast operations.

“Everybody's happy for the horse,” Ramsey said this morning. “He's a hard-trying horse and it's nice to see him punch his ticket. As far as what's next, the San Gabriel at Santa Anita (Park in Arcadia, Calif.) is an option but we have options back east as well.

“As of right now, he's booked on a flight to go back east Tuesday, but we'll find out today what we're going to do.”

The win by Tezzaray in the $100,000 G3 Jimmy Durante was the second in as many starts for trainer Peter Miller since being imported from England last summer. Ruben Alvarado, who is taking over as Miller takes a step back from training, said all three of the stable's Durante entrants – Liam's Dove (5th) and Travel Smart (6th), in addition to Tezzaray, were fine.

“I thought all three of my fillies ran very well and were given great rides,” Miller said after the race. “It's nice to win a stakes race on the way out.”

Trainer John Shirreffs said by text that Beyond Brilliant, winner of the $400,000 G1 Hollywood Derby was looking very good Sunday morning. “He had his head out waiting for his early morning feed. That's always a good sign.”

It was the third victory in nine starts for Beyond Brilliant, owned by the C R K Stable of Lee and Susan Searing of Arcadia. The $240,000 winner's share of the purse, earned via a masterful wire-to-wire guidance by Hall of Fame jockey Kent Desormeaux, raised the son of Twirling Candy's earnings to $381,280.

The post All Three Stakes Winners Doing Well After Saturday Scores appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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The Week in Review: Pink Lloyd Reminds Us How Special the Thoroughbred Is

With the Medina Spirit (Protonico) positive, the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf debacle, the on-going saga of Jorge Navarro, Jason Servis and the rest and the closing of Arlington Park, it's been another tough year for horse racing. This game sure can get you down at times.

But we will always have the horse.

These beautiful, athletic, noble, graceful animals, they always find a way to make you feel good about the sport. Which is why so many people were smiling and cheering Saturday at Woodbine as Pink Lloyd (Old Forester)'s fairytale story had a fairytale ending.

Over the six years that he raced, Pink Lloyd, now nine, was never the fastest horse or the best horse out there. Since he never raced outside of Woodbine, it's fair to question his accomplishments. But there are other ways to measure how exceptional a horse truly is. Was there any horse more likeable or easier to root for? A horse that made you appreciate all that is good with this sport? No. It's not even close.

Pink Lloyd, who was retired after his win Saturday in the GII Kennedy Road S., is by a sire who stands for $4,000 and was bought as a yearling for $30,000 Canadian. He didn't even make it to the races until he was four. He appeared destined to be just another horse.

But what no one could have known back when he made his career debut on Aug. 28, 2016 was that this horse had something that few other horses have.

“I'll tell you what makes him so great–heart and desire and liking what he's doing and wanting to win,” said his trainer Robert Tiller.

Once Pink Lloyd got going, there was no stopping him. He made 38 career starts, won 29 times overall and won 26 stakes races, including three editions of the GII Kennedy Road S. These are the sort of numbers we are unlikely to see again.

He was named Canadian Horse of the Year in 2017 and will be named, for the fifth straight year, the 2021 Canadian Sprint Champion. But this has been his most extraordinary year, the year where he showed what he is made of.

Pink Lloyd finished third in the Kennedy Road in 2020 in his final start of the year and began his 9-year-old campaign with a loss to the 5-year-old Souper Stonehenge (Speightstown) in the GIII Jacques Cartier S. He lost his third straight when Super Stonehenge beat him again in the GIII Vigil S.

He looked done, at least when it comes to his being a top horse, and Tiller admitted that the gelding had lost a step. Behind the scenes, he was planning for his retirement.

But Pink Lloyd wasn't ready for retirement. The desire was still there.

He got untracked in time to win the GIII Bold Venture S. and then the Ontario Jockey Club S. But the Kennedy Road was supposed to be a different story. For the first time since August, he had to face Souper Stonehenge again, along with seven others, many of whom were half his age. Pink Lloyd was sent off at 7-2, the highest odds he had gone off at since April 15, 2017.

Never underestimate this horse. He won by a half-length and returned to winner's circle amid a standing ovation from those in the crowd.

“It was a tremendous way to go out,” Tiller said. “He's Woodbine's horse. He's Canada's horse.”

Making the story even better is the classy way Tiller and primary owner Frank Di Giulio, Jr. handled the end of his career. With Pink Lloyd finishing out as strongly as he did, it's not unreasonable to expect that he could once again make a lot of money on the track as 10-year-old in 2022. (He made $289,742 this year). But the owner and trainer understood what the right thing to do was. They let him go out healthy and still on top. Within a few days, his new home will be the LongRun Thoroughbred Retirement Society.

He'll be pampered at LongRun, which is just what he deserves after all he has accomplished. Pink Lloyd embodied everything that is good about this sport.

Asmussen-Santana Divorce

Ricardo Santana, Jr. rode his first horse for Steve Asmussen in 2012, the start of a jockey-trainer partnership that has been one of the most successful in the sport. According to Equineline, Santana has ridden 812 winners for Asmussen from 4,069 mounts. The two have teamed up to win 65 graded stakes. The list includes six Grade I's this year alone, the GI Jockey Club Gold Cup, the GI Frizette S., the GI Cotillion S., the GI Hopeful S., the GI Spinaway S. and the GI Forego S.

But Asmussen is no longer putting Santana on any of his horses. He won five races Thursday at Churchill Downs, with Tyler Gaffalione riding three of the horses and Joel Rosario picking up the other two wins. This comes after Santana went 0-for-81 at Keeneland, with the majority of his losses coming aboard Asmussen-trained horses. Santana is 2-for-38 at the current Churchill meet.

Staying Away in Droves at Zia Park

Zia Park in New Mexico put together a terrific card last Tuesday. They had six stakes races, topped by the $250,000 Zia Park Derby. Flavien Prat rode the card and so did Irad Ortiz, Jr., who teamed up with Asmussen to win three stakes. The hope would be that a card of that type would generate some enthusiasm and bring out some fans. It didn't quite work out that way, which shows just how hard it has become to get people to turn out and go to the racetrack.

According to Tuesday's Equibase charts, the crowd at Zia Park was 650 and the on-track handle was a paltry $44,598. Actually, that was an improvement over the day before when the attendance was 300 with an on-track handle of $21,238.

Desormeaux Heats Up

Kent Desormeaux's off-track problems have been well documented and they threatened to end his career. In 2020, the Hall of Famer had just 29 wins, easily the lowest in his career, after missing much of the second half of the year as he was undergoing three months of substance-abuse rehabilitation. That came after he was suspended by the Del Mar stewards for 15 days after an altercation with a TVG cameraman in which the jockey is alleged to have used racial slurs.

It took a while, but he is back on track and again showing the sort of ability that once made him one of the sport's biggest stars. Desormeaux won two races at Del Mar Wednesday and another Thursday. He then won the GII Hollywood Turf Cup S. Friday and the GI Hollywood Derby Saturday.

After winning the first and fifth races Sunday at Del Mar, Desormeaux had won with seven of his last 12 mounts.

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Say The Word, Desormeaux Have Final Word In Hollywood Turf Cup

Agave Racing Stable and Sam-Son Farm's Say the Word swung clear at the top of the stretch and scampered down the lane to capture the $251,000 Hollywood Turf Cup at Del Mar Friday afternoon in Del Mar, Calif.

The 6-year-old gelded son of More Than Ready ran a mile and one half on the Jimmy Durante Turf Course in 2:27.62 under Hall of Fame rider Kent Desormeaux to score by a length and take down a first prize of $150,000 in the Grade 2 headliner.

Phil D'Amato trains the winner and he also trains the runner-up, The Elwood Johnston Trust, Timmy Time Racing, et al's Acclimate, who set all the pace in the marathon, but couldn't hold off his stablemate at the end. Finishing third a neck back was Mr. and Mrs. William Warren Jr.'s Friar's Road.

Say the Word, who is a Canadian horse bred by the Sam-Son Farm of Rick Balaz of Ontario, paid $13.00, $5.80 and $4.00 across the board. Acclimate returned $8.80 and $4.40, while Friar's Road paid $3.20.

“This horse has had so much trouble before this; it was great to see him win. Kent (Desormeaux) did like he said he would and kept him covered up, then go him clear in the stretch and let him stretch his legs,” said D'Amato.

Desormeaux, who was winning his 86th stakes at Del Mar, kept his horse covered up for the majority of the journey, shifted him all the way outside at the top of the lane and kept him to a drive to the wire. It was the veteran's seventh lifetime score and the winner's share increased his earnings to $882,792. All of his wins have come on the turf.

“I've got to give Phil (trainer D'Amato) the credit for this one,” said Desormeaux. “He told me it was hard to get this horse to settle, so I told him I'd do the European thing: I'd put him up some horse's rear (force him to stay in position) and wait until the end. My peers always ask me who's my star and what that means is I'll put a star by the horse that I think will carry me 70 yards from the wire. And Umby (rider Umberto Rispoli) had the star today (Rispoli was aboard Friar's Road, the horse Desormeaux drafted in behind).”

In the track's continuing Pick 6 Single Ticket Jackpot Wager, the bet once more couldn't be conquered by the fans and its carryover moved up to $510,986. With only two days of racing left in the season, there's a real possibility that the wager could go all the way to Sunday's closing day and cause a mandatory payout that afternoon, a situation that usually greatly enhances the pool for the players.

First post for both Saturday and Sunday's races will be 12:30 p.m.

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Photo Finish Gives Principe Carlo Victory Over Positivity In Cary Grant

In a tight photo finish with three horses bidding for the win, Principe Carlo got the nod in the Cary Grant Stakes for California breds, the longshot springing the upset at Del Mar Thoroughbred Club in Del Mar, Calif.

The field of seven broke in a line, with Colt Fiction showing a head in front first before Fashionably Fast took the lead coming out of the chute. Sprinting out to a short lead, Fashionably Fast had Positivity and Colt Fiction pressing the pace down the backstretch. Around the far turn, jockey Kent Desormeaux angled Principe Carlo to the outside, going four-wide into the stretch with Fashionably Fast, Positivity, and Colt Fiction to his inside.

Down the Del Mar stretch, Fashionably Fast could not hold on to the lead, with Positivity, Colt Fiction, and Principe Carlo coming on to his outside, vying for the lead. Colt Fiction took a short lead midstretch, but Positivity to his inside and Principe Carlo on the outside battled back. The three hit the wire together, a photo finish necessary to determine the winner. In the end, Principe Carlo got the bob, winning by a nose over Positivity, with Colt Fiction a neck back in third. None Above the Law, Peaceful Transfer, Fashionably Fast, and Loud Mouth rounded out the order of finish.

The final time for the seven-furlong Cary Grant was 1:22.33. Find this race's chart here.

Principe Carlo paid $39.00, $14.00, and $7.00. Positivity paid $4.60 and $3.40. Colt Fiction paid $3.40.

“I knew I'd won it. (Up by a nose in the last jump.) No special instructions for me. Just ride him. The track has been playing better on the outside today so I broke from the 7 and stayed out there the whole race. The horse ran great. He got it done,” jockey Kent Desormeaux said after the Cary Grant.

“My first stakes win anywhere. The horse has a heart of gold and it has been a team effort. We gave him some time off (a year after claiming from Keith Desormeauux in October of 2020) and that's all he needed. This means a lot. All I needed was a chance and people here and at Santa Anita have been very good in giving it to me,” trainer Librado Barocio told the Del Mar press office after the race.

Bred in California by Richard Barton Enterprises, Principe Carlo is by Coil out of the Rahy mare Princess Ezra (GB). The 5-year-old horse is owned by Mia Familia Racing Stable. Principe Carlo was a $4,000 RNA consigned by McCarthy Bloodstock at the 2018 Barretts Equine Limited Spring Two-Year-Olds In Training Sale. His win in the Cary Grant Stakes is the 5-year-old's first in two starts in 2021, for a lifetime record of 22-7-7-0 and career earnings of $367,543.

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