A stakes doubleheader – featuring the Grade 2, $200,000 Best Pal Stakes and the Grade 2, $200,000 Yellow Ribbon Handicap – will provide some extra spice to an enticing Saturday racing card at Del Mar that kicks off at 2 p.m. in Del Mar, Calif.
Seven juveniles will lock horns in this 51st edition of the Best Pal over six furlong that goes as the ninth race on an 11-race program. Then 10 older fillies and mares will go 1 1/16 miles on the lawn in the 69th running of the Yellow Ribbon, which goes as race 10.
The likely favorite in the juvenile race is the eastern shipper Pappacap, a Gun Runner colt owned by Rustlewood Farm and trained by newly minted Hall of Famer Mark Casse. The bay homebred was a smart winner of his lone start on May 14 at Gulfstream Park in Florida and has been in steady training since then. Newcomer Joe Bravo gets the call.
Another promising runner in the lineup is Gary Barber's Bet On Mookie, a son of the Lion Heart stallion Uncaptured who has been to the post twice and shows a win and a second for his efforts. His tally came at Santa Anita on June 11 when he simply outran his field in a straight maiden affair to score by five and a quarter lengths. Trainer Peter Miller has given the assignment of Bet On Mookie to Abel Cedillo.
In the Yellow Ribbon the competition runs deep. Among the distaffers who rate more than a casual look in the turfer are Slam Dunk Racing Stable and Currency's Maxim Rate, LNJ Foxwoods' Dogtag, Agave Racing Stable and Medallion Racing's Charmaine's Mia. Also in the mix is last year's Yellow Ribbon winner – Calvin Nguyen's Bodhicitta.
In fact, all 10 runners in the lineup are stakes winners.
Here are the fields for the two stakes from the rail out with riders and morning line odds:
Best Pal — Bet On Mookie (5/2); Chapman or Tsumimoto's Our Empire (Tyler Baze, 20-1); Pappacap (8/5); Lovingier, Fasihuddin or Navarro's Finneus (Umberto Rispoli, 3-1); Lovingier, Beckerle or Carrillo's Thirsty Always (apprentice Cesar Ortega, 7/2); Peter Redekop's Aquitania Arrival (Juan Hernandez, 4-1), and Opas or Sinatra's Olympic Legend (Jose Valdivia, Jr., 10-1).
Yellow Ribbon – Bodhicitta (Trevor McCarthy, 6-1); Little Red Feather Racing or Sterling's Raymundos Secret (Tiago Pereira, 6-1); Charmaine's Mia (Joe Bravo, 4-1); Dogtag (Rispoli, 4-1); El Tata Stables' Brooke (Kyle Frey, 12-1); Tommy Town Thoroughbreds' Keeper Ofthe Stars (Cedillo, 12-1); George and Martha Schwary Racing's Ippodamia's Girl (Geovanni Franco, 12-1); Susan and John Moore's Princess Grace (Kent Desormeaux, 8-1); Maxim Rate (Hernandez, 7/2), and Gary Barber's Laura's Light (Valdivia, Jr., 15-1).
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