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Del Mar: Special Thanksgiving Day Card Topped By Red Carpet Handicap

Del Mar will present a special Thanksgiving Day card on Thursday with a first post at 11 a.m. The eight-race program will finish at approximately 2:30 p.m., leaving plenty of time for fans to make it back home for a turkey dinner.

The day's feature is the eighth local running of the Red Carpet Handicap, a marathon of a mile and three eighths that will be contested on the Jimmy Durante Turf Course. The Grade 3 test is for fillies and mares and has brought out five long-winded distaffers who'll be shooting for the lionesses' share of the $100,000 purse.

Three of the five runners have European backgrounds and one of them, L N J Foxwoods' Luck, figures to go favored off her two sharp efforts this year since coming stateside. The 4-year-old daughter of the top American grass sire Kitten's Joy smartly won an allowance race at Del Mar in August, then came back on Oct. 2 in the Grade 1 Rodeo Drive Stakes at Santa Anita to just miss to the multiple-stakes winner Going to Vegas.

Luck, who previously had won twice in France from four starts, will be handled Thursday by leading rider Flavien Prat. She currently trains out of the barn of Hall of Fame conditioner Richard Mandella.

Here's the full lineup for the headliner from the rail out with riders and weights:

West Point Thoroughbreds, Mercedes Stables or Mooney, et al's England's Rose (Victor Espinoza, 120 pounds)
Luck (121)
Madaket Stables, De Seroux or Naify, et al's Neige Blanche (Juan Hernandez, 121)
Ryan, Drown or Team Hanley's Single Soul (Joe Bravo, 115)
Katsumi Yoshida's Nicest (Umberto Rispoli, 117)

Neige Blanche finished fourth in the Rodeo Drive in her most recent try. The French-bred 4-year-old by the Irish sire Anodin captured the CTT & TOC overnight handicap at Del Mar on Aug. 14 at the same 11-furlong distance on grass as the Red Carpet. Earlier this year she won the Grade 3 Santa Barbara Sakes at a mile and one-half on the grass at Santa Anita.

England's Rose comes into the affair off two straight wins, the most recent being the Swingtime overnight stakes at Santa Anita. Her previous victory was at a mile and three eights on the lawn at Del Mar on Sept. 3.

Single Soul is in from the east coast to try her luck Thursday. She was an allowance winner at Belmont Park on Oct. 22 in her most recent effort.

Nicest was a distant fourth in the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Cup at Keeneland Oct. 16 in her first U.S. outing. The 3-year-old by American Pharoah had been taking on stakes horses in England and Ireland prior to that.

The early Thanksgiving card will be the first of four days of racing going through Sunday, Nov. 28 that will served as the climax to` the 2021 Bing Crosby Season. First post on the other three programs will be at 12:20 p.m.

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Motion Sends Single Soul In Pursuit Of Red Carpet Victory At Del Mar

Maryland-based trainer H. Graham Motion won the 2015 running of the Red Carpet Stakes with Rusty Slipper. Motion's assistant Alice Clapham, who has traveled with his horses to Del Mar Thoroughbred Club in Del Mar, Calif., since 2009 as part of worldwide assignments, was here to do the preparation work and saddling.

That combination, both natives of England, will be seeking a second score in the $100,000 Grade 3 Red Carpet, a 1 3/8-mile race for older fillies and mares on Thanksgiving Day. It's the first of seven graded stakes which make up the four-day Turf Festival to end the Bing Crosby Season.

Single Soul, a 3-year-old English-bred daughter of Dubawi, notched her second win in six career starts in a Belmont Park allowance race on October 22 and has been training since at Motion's facility in Fair Hill, Maryland. The most recent work was Saturday, five furlongs in 1:03 breezing.

Single Soul is scheduled to journey here on Tuesday. Clapham has been at Del Mar since before the Breeders' Cup earlier this month.

“I haven't heard anything about the work, but (Motion) must have been happy with it or he wouldn't have entered her,” Clapham said this morning. “I've been around her before and she's a really sweet filly. She hasn't traveled before but she seems quite sensible, so you'd think she will be OK with it.”

Single Soul had a forgettable debut for trainer Chad Brown on a yielding surface at Belmont a year ago. In five starts for Motion, she has never been off the board, notching a maiden win at Belmont Park in June and the 1 1/8-mile allowance there as an odds-on favorite in a field of six last month.

The Red Carpet will be her first race at the stakes level.

“We think she'll like the longer distance and we know she likes firmer turf,” Clapham said. “You can't really get that in New York right now, so this looks like a nice spot. Graham is sending out some for other races as well, so it kind of works out.”

A field of five was entered Saturday for the Red Carpet. From the rail out with riders in parentheses: England's Rose (Victor Espinoza); Luck (Flavien Prat); Neige Blanche (Juan Hernandez); Single Soul (Joe Bravo), and Nicest (Umberto Rispoli).

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Going To Vegas Holds Off Luck In Rodeo Drive Stakes

Like a casino sending gamblers home empty handed, Going to Vegas refused to let the furious rush of Luck prevail on Saturday in the Grade 1 Rodeo Drive Stakes at Santa Anita Park.

Going to Vegas, a 4-year-old Goldencents filly got out early in the 1 1/4-mile turf race, and quickly got to the rail under jockey Umberto Rispoli, and she crossed over from the downhill course to the main oval ahead of Dogtag on the inside and longshot Neige Blanche on her outside hip.

Going to Vegas held a comfortable 1 1/2-length lead over Neige Blanche after an opening quarter-mile in :24.35 seconds, and she maintained that margin as the field went past the finish for the first time. The top three positions went unchanged as they headed into the backstretch, with Rispoli keeping Going to Vegas under light restraint.

The race started to percolate after the three-quarters mark in 1:13.49, with jockey Flavien Prat starting to rouse Luck from the middle of the field. Luck got up to third place behind Going to Vegas and Neige Blanche heading into the final turn, and she was in second after a mile in 1:36.35.

Rispoli started urging Going to Vegas in the straightaway with a right-handed crop, as they worked to hold off a pair of LNJ Foxwoods-owned runners in ground-saving Dogtag and outside-moving Luck.

Luck was gaining ground on Going to Vegas as the wire approached, but she ran out of time and real estate, finishing a head behind the winner. Stablemate Dogtag carried on for third.

Going to Vegas stopped the clock in 1:58.84 over a fast main track. She paid $4.20 as the post-time favorite.

Richard Baltas trains Going to Vegas for owners Abbondanza Racing, Medallion Racing, and MyRacehorse. Saturday's victory improved the filly's record to seven wins in 22 starts for earnings of $634,151.

Bred in Kentucky by J. Kirk and Judy Robison, Going to Vegas is out of the stakes-winning Johannesburg mare Hard to Resist.

To view the Equibase chart, click here.

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LNJ Foxwoods Duo Take on Rodeo Drive

LNJ Foxwoods' sends out a pair of homebreds from two different barns in Luck (Kitten's Joy) and Dogtag (War Front), both of whom have a good chance to secure a spot in the gate for the GI Breeders' Cup F/M Turf next month in Saturday's GI Rodeo Drive S. at Santa Anita. Luck kicked off her career in France for trainer Alain De Royer-Dupre, winning two of four starts going long on the synthetic, including an Apr. 1 allowance. Sixth in her final European start on turf May 8, she was moved Stateside to trainer Richard Baltas and impressed in her U.S. debut, going from last to first in a Del Mar optional claimer Aug. 7, good for a 90 Beyer Speed Figure.

Dogtag will carry the same navy and gold colors, but hails from the Richard Mandella barn. A three-time listed stakes winner, she has been knocking at the door of a graded victory for some time. The gray has been second in her last four starts, including the Aug. 7 GII Yellow Ribbon H. and Sept. 4 GII John C. Mabee S. at Del Mar.

John Mabee winner Going to Vegas (Goldencents) runs back here as well. Runner-up in the GI American Oaks last term, the bay won the GIII Santa Ana S. Mar. 27 and was fifth in the May 31 GI Gamely S., but rebounded with an optional claimer win at Del Mar July 16.

Also exiting the Mabee is Brazilian import Fast Jet Court (Brz) (Courtier), who was making her American bow when fourth in that event.

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