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Pinehurst, Murray Head Field For Monday’s Del Mar Futurity

The curtain comes ringing down on a highly successful Del Mar race meeting Labor Day Monday with a pair of juvenile stakes races topping the bill – the championship-caliber Grade 1 Runhappy Del Mar Futurity and the Del Mar Juvenile Turf.

There will be 10 races offered on the holiday with an early first post of 1:30 p.m. The Juvenile Fillies Turf will run as Race 9 a bit after 5 p.m. and the Runhappy Futurity will follow as Race 10 shortly after 5:30.

A half-dozen well-bred and well-meant colts will put on a show in the $300,000 Futurity, which will be contested at its usual distance of seven furlongs. No fewer than three Hall of Fame trainers will take a crack at this 74th edition of the race including one – Bob Baffert – who is known as Mr. Futurity in these parts.

Baffert, who has two runners for the race, has won Del Mar's top event for 2-year-olds 14 times, starting with his champion Silver Charm in 1996. The other two Hall of Famers – Mark Casse and Steve Asmussen – each have a single entrant in the extended sprint, but, in both cases, they've come loaded for bear.

Baffert's pair are SF Racing, Starlight Racing, Golconda Stable, Stonestreet Stable, et al's Murray and SF Racing, Starlight Racing, Madaket Stables, Stonestreet Stables, et al's Pinehurst. Both were impressive straight maiden winners earlier in the Del Mar meet and, with Baffert's mo-jo behind them, both will draw many eyes and heavy action Monday.

Casse's runner is Best Pal Stakes winner Pappacap, who is a homebred for Rustlewood Farm and Asmussen's starter is Downstream Racing's American Xperiment, who won smartly in a straight maiden race at Saratoga on July 30.

The Juvenile Turf drew nine 2-year-old for a mile spin on the Jimmy Durante Turf Course with a $100,000 purse as a target for them to shoot at.

The morning-line favorite in the race is Sierra Racing or Sterling Stables' Silver Surfer, a gray gelding who has been racing exclusively in Ireland and came stateside to trainer Phil D'Amato's barn in July. He's listed at 5/2 to capture the 10th running of the stakes, which serves as a prep for the $1 million Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf scheduled to be run at Del Mar on November 5.

Here are the full fields for both races with riders and morning line odds:

Runhappy Del Mar Futurity – Pappacap (Joe Bravo, 3-1); Opas or Sinatra's Olympic Legend (Jose Valdivia, Jr., 12-1); Lovingier, Fasihuddin or Navarro's Finneus (Tiago Pereira, 12-1); Pinehurst (Mike Smith, 5/2); Murray (Flavien Prat, 2-1), and American Xperiment (Umberto Rispoli, 5/2).

Del Mar Juvenile Turf – Silver Surfer (Bravo); Paradise Farms, Staudachere, et al's My Mane Champ (Rispoli, 12-1); Martin or Yamamoto's Mogollon Rim (Flavien Prat, 6-1); Sergio Zepeda Jr.'s Shortman (Valdivia, Jr., 30-1); ERJ Racing or Kenney's Mackinnon (Juan Hernandez, 3-1); Peter Redekop's Aquitania Arrival (Abel Cedillo, 5-1); Aldan Butler's Thirty Four Coupe (Smith, 15-1); Red Barons Barn or Rancho Temescal's Optimising (Drayden Van Dyke, 3-1), and Thomsen Racing's Socal Red (Pereira, 20-1).

Monday's card is the 31st and final day of summer season No. 82 at the shore oval. The track will return to action on Wednesday, November 3 for its 15-day fall session that will include the Breeders' Cup Championship races on November 5 and 6.

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Pair Of Baffert Trainees Headline Sextet For Del Mar Futurity

Six colts were entered Friday for Monday's 74th running of the Grade 1, $300,000 Runhappy Del Mar Futurity, the traditional closing day feature of the summer meeting.

Six appears to be an operative number for the seven-furlong extended sprint for 2-year-olds that determines the 2-year-old champion of the meeting. If all leave the starting gate it will be the third time in the last four years, and the fifth in the last seven, that a six-pack comprised the field.

And the 2021 running may have more Hall of Fame trainers, per horse capita, than ever before.

Steve Asmussen, Hall of Fame Class of 2016, has dispatched a representative, American Xperiment, from Saratoga. The son of 2015 Runhappy Futurity winner Nyquist will have had five days to acclimate to Del Mar surroundings leading up to the race after being supplementally entered at a cost of $10,000.

“He got here Tuesday, he arrived in good order and we're hoping he runs well,” said Asmussen assistant Sarah Campion, who travelled with American Xperiment. “He broke his maiden impressively at Saratoga, so Steve decided to send him out.”

In his racing debut on July 30, American Xperiment went wire-to-wire over a muddy track in a race taken off the turf and won over six rivals by 5 ¼ lengths.

Mark Casse, Hall of Fame Class of 2020, has Pappacap, winner of the Best Pal Stakes on Aug. 7 in his second career start and second win.

And Bob Baffert, Hall of Fame Class of 2009 – who has 14 Futurity wins on his resume dating back to 1996 – will send out Murray and Pinehurst.

“They both broke their maidens here and they've both trained well since,” Baffert said.

Murray, a son of Street Sense who was a $300,000 yearling purchase at Keeneland last September, was a romping 10 ½-length winner on July 25. Pinehurst, a son of Twirling Candy acquired for $385,000 at the same sale, overcame bumping at the start for half-length victory at five furlongs on August 1.

The fifth entrant is Finneus, a California-bred son of Stay Thirsty who was a $200,000 purchase last year. He has one win in three starts and was the runner-up to Pappacap in the Best Pal last out. Trainer Walther Solis helped in the development of some of Baffert's earliest Futurity winners while serving as manager for the Golden Eagle Farm of John and Betty Mabee.

The sixth is Olympic Legend, a son of Street Boss owned by Larry Opas and Frank Sinatra and trained by Luis Mendez. Olympic Legend broke his maiden in his second career start on June 27 at Los Alamitos.

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Futurity Colt Stirs Del Mar Memories For Hall Of Famer Casse

A fun story about the last time trainer Mark Casse had a colt win the Best Pal Stakes and then be favored for the Del Mar Futurity.

The year was 2014. The horse was John Oxley-owned Skyway, who was ridden to victory in the Futurity-prep Best Pal by Stewart Elliott. Casse, recently inducted into racing's Hall of Fame a year after being voted entrance, picks up the narrative from there.

“Skyway had won the Best Pal and he was going to be the favorite in the Futurity. Bob (Baffert) had an exercise rider get hurt and Stewart Elliott was walking over to exercise one for Bob and I guess he got too close to a horse on a hot-walking machine and he got kicked and broke his ribs.

“I had riders lined up to ride Skyway and Victor Espinoza was on the short list. A few days before, I told Espinoza's agent (Brian Beach) I was going to let Corey Nakatani ride.

“A few days go by and I see his agent and asked if he'd picked up anything for the Futurity. He goes, 'Aw, we picked up a maiden for Bob.”

That pick-up mount was eventual Del Mar Futurity and 2015 Triple Crown winner American Pharaoh.

“I think Skyway ($2.30-1 in the Futurity) was the only horse ever to be favored over American Pharoah,” Casse said.

Seven years later, Casse has Pappacap, a homebred son of Gun Runner from the Rustlewood Farm of George and Karen Russell and 2-for-2 in a career with a 4 3/4-length victory in the Best Pal on Aug. 7 here following up a wire-to-wire debut win in May at Gulfstream Park in Florida. Pappacap is the likely favorite for the 74th running of the Runhappy Del Mar Futurity on closing day of the meeting, Labor Day Monday, September 6.

“Pappacap has been a horse, from the time we started breezing at our training center in Ocala, that always seemed a little extra special,” Casse said recently by phone from Saratoga. “George and Karen Russell are small breeders, but wonderful people and we're very excited for them.

“They're from South Florida and we had him here this spring and the plan was to run in South Florida and then maybe Saratoga.”

The plan was altered after the Gulfstream debut.

“I didn't know he would go right to the lead,” Casse said. “I didn't think they would beat him, but I thought he would settle and then make a run. I was kind of shocked by it, but good horses are very versatile and he's a good horse.

“We brought him back to Ocala, the Russells were there to watch him and I just ran it by them that there was a good series in California and I think this horse could be a Breeders' Cup horse. So why not send him out, and they said OK.”

With assistant Allen Hardy-Zukowski overseeing preparations at Del Mar, Pappacap, under Joe Bravo, rated nicely behind two front-runners, took over in mid-stretch and went on to a 4 ½-length victory

“I've seen much stronger Best Pals and I'm not sure he beat the greatest field in the world, but I liked the way he did it,” Casse said. “He settled, he finished, he galloped out strong. And I think it helped him. He's got a lot of confidence right now.”

If Papacap does well in the Futurity, the plan is to keep him in California, part of a small string for Casse at Santa Anita, and then back to Del Mar for the Breeders' Cup World Championships on November 5-6.

In the 2017 Breeders' Cup, the first as host for Del Mar, Casse was represented by seven horses in five races. A third, at odds of 14-1, in the Dirt Mile by Awesome Slew as part of the Friday program got the Casse contingent off to a good start. A sixth by Wonder Gadot, one of three Casse charges in the Juvenile Fillies, was the best result from the next five he saddled.

Then World Approval won as the favorite in the $2 million Mile on turf, which was worth $1.1 million for owner Charlotte Weber of Live Oak plantation, a longtime client whose father was a Florida neighbor and friend of Casse's faher.

It was the third year in a row that Casse had won a Breeders' Cup race. In the post-race press conference he had this to say of World Approval: “Obviously, to win this race you have to be a great horse and he proved that today. You can't train greatness. You can just kind of make sure you don't get in their way.”

Two months out, it's impossible to predict how many horses Casse will have when Del Mar serves as the Breeders' Cup venue for a second time. But he's hoping it will be similar, or even greater, in numbers to 2017.

Got Stormy punched a ticket to the FanDuel Mile with a 'Win and You're In' victory in the Fourstardave on August 1 at Saratoga. Casse has several prospects for the Woodbine Mile on September 18, and an assortment of 2-year-olds for the Natalma Stakes and Summer Stakes the following day in Toronto, all automatic qualifier events

“We have a lot of young horses and this is the time of year you look for them to step up,” Casse said. “I had a filly called Valadorna who didn't make her first start until September and she wound up second in the (2016) Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies. I had a horse called Airoforce who didn't run until Kentucky Downs (early September) and he wound up getting beat a neck in the (2015) Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf.

“So we've got horses out there that haven't started yet that have potential. You need a lot of luck.”

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The 2017 Breeders' Cup was for Casse a return to the track where he had overseen a string in 2014. A proponent of artificial surfaces, Casse forged a western campaign for the final season before Del Mar switched back from Polytrack to dirt for the main track.

“I remember we had a bunch of seconds and no wins to start and it was being talked about,” Casse said. “I could run 15 at Woodbine and not win and nobody notices. (At Del Mar) you lose 15 in a row and you feel like everybody's watching.”

On the final weekend of the campaign, Casse – despite issues — wound up saddling the standout filly Lexie Lou to do battle with California Chrome in the first Hollywood Derby at Del Mar.

A normally short 10-minute trip from their rental house took more than twice as long and, arriving at the track, Casse was delayed further by a security guard who didn't recognize or believe him when he said he had a horse to saddle.

Lexie Lou put up a game fight before finishing second, two lengths behind California Chrome.

Win or lose, smooth sailing or hassles, Casse has always expressed an affinity for Del Mar on his visits.

“We love Del Mar,” Casse acknowledged. “If I said to my wife, Tina, 'Let's move to Del Mar,' she'd be packing in no time. She loves it there. I've said to a lot of people, it's where trainers die and go to heaven.”

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Prat Wins On East Coast, Veterans Take Del Mar Stakes Saturday

Del Mar's leading rider Flavien Prat notched another stakes victory in the second of his three-day soiree to Saratoga Race Course, the upstate New York track known as The Spa, for major race assignments.

Prat took the $200,000 Grade 2 National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame Stakes on Friday aboard Public Sector ($3.80) for trainer Chad Brown. Saturday, the same combination scored in the $120,000 Fasig-Tipton Lure Stakes with Flavius ($4.70).

Prat was fourth, beaten 6 ¾ lengths by Bella Sofia, aboard Always Carina for Brown in the $500,000 Grade 1 Longines Test Stakes. One race later on the card, Del Mar-based Hall of Famer Mike Smith was fifth, beaten 4 ½-lengths by 21-1 long shot State of Rest, aboard Secret Protector for English trainer Charles Appleby.

Meanwhile, Del Mar's pair of Grade 2 events on Saturday were won by riders with a combined total age of 100 and combined total experience of 62,819 races and 11,591 wins.

Joe Bravo, 49 for another month, took the first of the back-to-back stakes, the $200,500 Best Pal, getting Pappacap to settle nicely behind dueling front runners then swooping to a 4 3/4-length score. According to Equibase statistics, Bravo ended the day with 30,507 career races and 5,505 wins.

“His (only previous) race in Florida, he was just pure speed,” Bravo said. “You don't know if that's the way they like to go. I was glad to see how well he settled in behind those two up front. He showed another dimension today.”

Hall of Famer Kent Desormeaux, 51, won the $200,000 Yellow Ribbon on Princess Grace for trainer Mike Stidham. At Desormeaux's urging, the 4-year-old filly shot through a gap between horses at the top of the stretch to take the lead and was never headed in winning by 1 ¼ lengths.

“Michael told me one thing before the race that I used to advantage,” Desormeaux related. “He said, 'She's brave.' When that hole opened turning for home, I sent her through and she went right on with it.”

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Desormeaux, who missed much of 2020 while addressing personal issues, has 32,312 career starts and 6,086 wins according to Equibase statistics.

“I'm so happy for Kent,” Stidham said. “He's so talented, an amazing rider, and the way he came through that hole with (Princess Grace) was terrific.”

Bravo stands fifth in the Del Mar rider standings with nine wins from 53 mounts. Desormeaux is in seventh place with seven victories in 45 starts.

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