Peter Miller | Horse Racing Free Tips

Many Chances in Deep Bing

Handicappers will have a tough time tossing many horses from their tickets as a competitive nine-horse field lines up for Saturday's six-furlong GI Bing Crosby S. at Del Mar, a “Win and You're In” qualifier for the GI Breeders' Cup Sprint.

Given a slight nod on the morning line at 5-2 is C Z Rocket (City Zip). Claimed for $40,000 last spring at Oaklawn by Peter Miller, the gelding has been a new horse since, winning seven of nine races while finishing second in the other two. That streak includes a score in last summer's GII Pat O'Brien S. over this oval. The 7-year-old most recently was second when stretching out in the GIII Steve Sexton Mile S. May 31 at Lone Star.

California-bred Brickyard Ride (Clubhouse Ride) rates a big chances breaking from the outermost stall. Earning a shot at open company after a convincing score in the California Cup Sprint S. Jan. 16 at Santa Anita, the Alfred Pais homebred didn't disappoint, cruising to an impressive four-length victory despite setting a scorching pace in the GII San Carlos S. Mar. 6. Well-beaten in his next two, he rebounded with a 4 3/4-length success in the Cal-bred Thor's Echo S. last out June 12.

Dr. Schivel (Violence) takes on older horses in just his fifth career start. Taking three tries to break his maiden, he came right back to annex the GI Runhappy Del Mar Futurity for Luis Mendez, but went unseen for over nine months after that before eventually returning with a narrow allowance/optional claiming tally for new trainer Mark Glatt June 18 at Santa Anita.

Defending Bing Crosby champion Collusion Illusion (Twirling Candy) makes his 4-year-old debut here. Runner-up in the GII Santa Anita Championship S. after his local heroics, he was 12th in the GI Breeders' Cup Sprint before rebounding some to be third in the GI Runhappy Malibu S.

Other contenders include Vertical Threat (Tapiture), last seen romping by 7 1/2 lengths with a 102 Beyer in last November's Steel Valley Sprint S. at Mahoning Valley, Quick Tempo (Tapizar), who did his name justice when setting splits of :21.44 and :43.35 before setting for second in the Iowa Sprint S. at Prairie Meadows July 3, and Eight Rings (Empire Maker), who's winless in four starts since capturing the GI American Pharoah S. as a juvenile but shows a sharp worktab for Bob Baffert that includes a five-furlong bullet in :58 3/5 (1/91) July 10 in Arcadia.

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Bing Crosby Nominations Promises Deep Field Of Sprinters At Del Mar

Seventeen horses, encompassing virtually all the top sprinters on the West Coast, have been nominated to Saturday's $300,000 Grade 1 Bing Crosby Stakes, assuring that the field will be a stellar one when it is set and post positions are drawn on Wednesday.

Trainer Mark Glatt finished first and third in the 2020 Crosby with Collusion Illusion and Law Abidin Citizen. He has those two plus Dr. Schivel nominated and said Sunday he might run all three.

Other marquee speedsters on the nomination list include 2020 Pat O'Brien winner C Z Rocket for Peter Miller; the trio of Ax Man, Eight Rings, and Gamine from the Bob Baffert barn; graded stakes winner Flagstaff from the John Sadler stable; and the double-quick Cal-bred Brickyard Ride out of the Craig Lewis barn.

Sadler said Flagstaff will skip the Bing Crosby and instead go in the seven-furlong Pat O'Brien here on August 28.

Baffert said the 4-year-old filly Gamine, a winner of six graded stakes in her last seven starts – four of them Grade 1s – is more likely to continue competing against her own gender elsewhere than take on males in the Bing Crosby.

But Gamine is one of 11 older fillies and mares nominated to next Sunday's Clement L. Hirsch, as is stablemate As Time Goes By. A 4-year-old daughter of Baffert-trained Triple Crown winner American Pharoah, As Time Goes By is one of three stakes winners at Santa Anita that are possibles for the Hirsch, a 1 1/16-mile main track event that usually determines the top older filly or mare of the meeting.

The others are Venetian Harbor and Warren's Showtime.

The 6-furlong Bing Crosby is a “Win & You're In” qualifier for the $2 million Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Sprint at Del Mar on November 6. The Clement L. Hirsch is likewise designated for the $2 million Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Distaff that same day.

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Familiar Names Lead Early Del Mar Standings

Four days into the 82^nd Del Mar summer meeting, one can find the usual suspects in the upper reaches of the jockey and trainer standings.

There's Flavien Prat, winner of four of the last five riding titles on top, despite missing a day while on assignment in New Jersey, with seven wins from 24 mounts.

There's eight-time (summer and fall) training champion Peter Miller having saddled three winners from 23 starters. Miller is deadlocked with defending fall champion Richard Baltas, who has gone 3-for-21.

But look just below, or in the trainers' case to the side, and one finds names that are not quite so familiar to the casual fan.

In a five-way tie for second behind Prat is Kyle Frey, a 29-year-old journeyman from Tracy, CA, who has three wins from 13 mounts. And level with Miller and Baltas is Victor Garcia, who has gone 3-for-3 to begin the meeting.

Frey notched his first Del Mar stakes victory on Friday aboard I'm So Anna in the $176,000 Fleet Treat Stakes for trainer Steve Sherman and owner/breeders KMN Racing of Kimberly and Kevin Nish of Orlando, FL.

Frey and I'm So Anna out-finished Prat on Teddy's Barino to the delight of Steve Sherman's father Art. The senior Sherman, who trained California Chrome to racing's highest honors, deputized for his son, who remained at their base in Northern California with four scheduled starters at Golden Gate Fields.

“I love it,” Art Sherman said. “Give the Northern California guys a chance.”

“Northern California guys” have made a summer migration to Del Mar with significant impact for the past three years. First Abel Cedillo in 2019, then Juan Hernandez and Ricky Gonzalez last year. Frey summered at Del Mar a few years ago but had settled on the Northern California circuit since.

Equibase statistics show Frey in the No. 39 spot for North American jockeys in 2021 with 129 wins from 514 mounts and purse earnings of more than $2.6 million. His career totals: 970 wins from 5,678 mounts and more than $20 million in purses. He's well on his way to his personal record of 153 wins in a calendar year.

“I was planning on heading back up to Northern California after a week here, but I'm doing so good I must admit I am seriously considering sticking around,” Frey said after the Fleet Treat. “We'll see.”

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Art Sherman said Saturday morning that I'm So Anna may race here again this summer with the Tranquility Lake Stakes at a mile on dirt on August 27 one possibility.

Garcia, 56, has been coming to Del Mar since the late 1980s. He saddled Little Juanito to victory in the seventh race on the opening day of the meeting, July 16, and followed that with a pair of wins last Sunday – Cute Impact in the fourth and Miss Alegria in the sixth. Little Juanito and Miss Alegria both paid $6.00 as race favorites, Cute Impact was a $63.80 upsetter.

“This is a good start and I hope the luck will keep going,” the conditioner said.

Garcia said he started with eight horses stabled here but lost Miss Alegria for the $20,000 claiming price. The 5-year-old mare was taken by Altamira Racing Stable and Tom Kagele and now is in Miller's barn.

“I'm looking to claim some, but it's tough to do here,” Garcia said.

Garcia was born in Tijuana and is a third-generation horseman. His father, Juan Garcia, was known as the “King of Caliente” (the now-closed Tijuana racetrack) after winning dozens of training titles there. He has been a Del Mar regular since the late 1980s and has five graded stakes victories in his career. He saddled Smooth Roller to a Grade 1 win in the 2015 Awesome Again at Santa Anita and registered Grade 2 or Grade 3 wins with Approved To Fly and Wait Til Monday in 1988 and '89.

Going on a winning streak is not new for the Garcia family. “I think my father won five straight in one day at Caliente,” he said.

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Fans, Horsemen Alike Ready To Celebrate ‘Real’ Del Mar Summer

Peter Miller won a fourth Del Mar summer season training title in 2020, equaling the number of fall crowns for him at the place Miller refers to as his “home” track.

But the 55-year-old Encinitas and Manhattan Beach resident readily admits that it didn't feel the same as the other seven. Not in a time in which COVID-19 protocols for most of the meeting required stands empty of all but “essential” personnel and masks on the faces of everyone there in person.

“Last year felt abnormal, weird, very strange, surreal,” Miller said Monday during a break from morning workouts. “You'd win a race and it felt like you'd won a workout.”

Miller won 28 races, eight more than runner-up Phil D'Amato. Six came in stakes, to raise Miller's career total to 38 over the last 14 years. And none of those horses returned to a winner's circle ceremony of picture-taking, reward-presenting, hand-shaking, back-slapping and all-around smiling with success in accordance with decades of racing tradition.

So count Miller, Del Mar Thoroughbred Club CEO Joe Harper, and racetrackers of all sorts, who are looking forward to the return of fans and fanfare when the 82nd summer season commences a 31-day meeting on Friday.

“Real live people, that's terrific,” said Harper, in his 44th year at the track helm. “I spent a lot of time walking around talking to myself last year.

“It's just great. Having people around is what Del Mar is all about. It's not your average racetrack. It's a party, concerts and all the things that make people happy. It was kind of sad out here last year when your handle is $200,000 on track and $25 million off track. That was kind of a fun day, but it was just weird.”

“It's a credit to the whole industry that we got through COVID as well as we did,” said trainer John Sadler, No. 2 for stakes wins (78) in track history. “Now we're all happy and excited about having a return to normal.”

“We had gone through (COVID 2020 protocols) at Santa Anita before we came down here last summer, so we were kind of prepared,” said Hall of Fame trainer Richard Mandella. “But the stands without fans, the quiet during the races … the weird feeling never went away.”

Billy Koch heads the Little Red Feather racing partnership group, whose all-out-for-fun approach, to racing and life, is especially suited to Del Mar. Little Red Feather's Red King won the Del Mar Handicap and was voted the top grass horse of the meeting but only a handful of partners were able to celebrate on the tarmac down by the rail.

“We love it down here and Del Mar is the premier meeting we point to,” Koch said. “So it was difficult that a lot of our partners and fans couldn't get in to see the horses run. But Del Mar did a good job of getting some in to see the races and we appreciated that.

“We did nothing last year (in the way of pre-meet partying), but we're back this year and champing at the bit. Little Red Feather Nation will be out in force and we're looking forward to a really good meeting.”

Del Mar opens its summer season on a Friday for the third time since 1970 and the sixth time in its history. Before last year's COVID-forced no-count, the official totals were 42,562 on the grounds in 2016 and 11,998 in 1970. The other Friday openings came in 1959 and 1941.

Opening Friday 2021 won't approach 2016 – which ranks as the 10th-highest turnout in track history – but it figures to be a happy contrast to 2020. Del Mar will open with 100% capacity in its seating areas throughout the facility and an approximately 16,000 sellout has been announced. This decision was made in accordance with state and county public health guidelines.

All fans wishing to attend must obtain a seating package in advance of their arrival. Admission tickets and parking passes are included in the package.

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