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Laura’s Light Tops Competitive Field Of 11 In Saturday’s San Clemente Stakes

The 53rd edition of the Grade II San Clemente Stakes – a key stepping stone to the Grade I Del Mar Oaks on August 22 – goes Saturday at Del Mar and has drawn a competitive field of 11 3-year-old fillies for the one-mile test on the lawn.

The likely favorite in the $150,000 San Clemente is Gary Barber's Laura's Light, a bay daughter of the hot young sire Constitution who has won four of her six lifetime starts and comes into the turfer off a tally in the Grade III Honeymoon Stakes at Santa Anita on May 30. That race was at nine furlongs on the grass and she held on to win by a neck under rider Abel Cedillo, who rides back Saturday for trainer Peter Miller.

Laura's Light's chief rivals appear to be a pair of stakes winners in Benjamin and Sally Warren's Warren's Showtime, who'll be handled by regular rider Jorge Velez, and the Florida shipper Cheermeister, who is owned by Teresa and David Palmer and gets the saddle services of Victor Espinoza.

Warren's Showtime, the lone California-bred in the field, is a daughter of Clubhouse Ride and runs out of the barn of conditioner Craig Lewis. She took the state-bred Melair Stakes at Santa Anita on the main track on June 21 in her most recent appearance. She's won five of her 10 outings.

Cheermeister, who is by Bodemeister, won a pair of graded turf stakes at Gulfstream Park earlier this year and will be making her first start since May 15. Trainer Armando De La Cerda has guided the quick lassie to four victories in seven starts, all but one of them on the lawn. She has been training steadily in Florida since her last out.

The San Clemente is one of three stakes on the Saturday card at Del Mar, the others being the $150,000, Grade II San Diego Handicap and the $65,000 Smiling Tiger Stakes.

Here's the complete field for the San Clemente in post position order with riders and morning line odds:

Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners' She's So Special (Flavien Prat, 5-1); DRJ Racing and Great Friends Stable's Lazy Daisy (Giovanni Franco, 20-1); Laura's Light (3-1); Batchelor Family Trust's Over Attracted (Mike Smith, 15-1); Red Barons Barn or Rancho Temesca's Croughavouke (Umberto Rispoli, 6-1); Cheermeister (6-1); Next Wave Racing, Baltas or Robershaw's Little Bird (Ruben Fuentes, 15-1); Gainesway Stable, LNJ Foxwoods or Rose's Mind Out (Brice Blanc, 15-1); Warren's Showtime (7/2); Benowitz Family Trust and Madaket Stable's Guitty (Juan Hernandez, 20-1), and Medallion Racing, Next Wave Racing, et al's Applecross (Drayden Van Dyke, 12-1).

The San Clemente will be the 9th of 11 races on the Saturday program.

First post all afternoons at Del Mar is 2 p.m.

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Favored Moscato Delivers Sweet Finish In A.P. Smithwick Memorial

Bruton Street's Moscato ran down Optimus Prime in deep stretch, overtaking him from the far outside in the final sixteenth to win Thursday's Grade 1, $100,000 A.P. Smithwick Memorial in the first graded steeplechase race of the summer meet at Saratoga Race Course.

Contested over eight hurdles, it was the final, flat portion of the race that decided the winner. Redicean, the leader at the conclusion of the jumps, was in front heading into the final turn before Optimus Prime, the winner of the 2018 Grade 1 New York Turf Writers Cup of the Spa, took the lead from the outside.

But 8-5 favorite Moscato, under rider Michael Mitchell, put in a furious finish from even further outside, finishing strong under an aggressive hand ride for a three-quarter length victory, completing the approximate 2 1/16 miles on the firm inner turf in a final time of 3:47.51.

“I had to work to keep him in position early,” Mitchell said. “The pace was good early on. I was comfortable with where we were and he jumped fantastically. He really met every fence nicely and covered the ground well. They just started to slow up coming into the turn and we had to weave through a couple of horses. Coming out of the turn, he got trapped for a little bit of room but his stamina kicked in and he really went well to the line and got his head in front at the right time.”

Moscato improved to 2-for-2 in his 9-year-old year, adding to his victory in the Grade 3 Temple Gwathmey Hurdle on June 13 at Glenwood Park at Middleburg. The English-bred son of Hernando gave trainer Jack Fisher his fourth career A.P. Smithwick triumph.

“I thought we were in serious trouble on the turn,” Fisher said. “Optimus Prime cruised up there but he hadn't run in a year and I think he might have needed the race and just ran out of gas in the last sixteenth. I think he'll be very tough next time.”

Moscato, who ended his 2019 season with a third-place finish in the prestigious Grade 1 Grand National at Fair Hill in October, improved to 12-7-3 in 33 lifetime starts. He returned $5.40 on a $2 win wager and improved his career earnings to $414,677.

“The ground suits these jumpers,” Mitchell said. “It's good a good grass cover and we had a little bit of rain last night which helps these horses. Being foreign-bred they like a bit more sponginess and cut in the ground, so it wasn't an issue being wide it was more about keeping the momentum throughout the race.”

Optimus Prime, who entered with wins in four of his previous five starts [with three graded stakes wins] dating to 2018 for trainer Richard Hendriks, finished 2 1/2 lengths in front of Gibralfaro for second.

Redicean and Chief Justice completed the order of finish. Pravalaguna, Surprising Soul and Winner Massagot were all eased. Belisarius was scratched.

The meet's other Grade 1 steeplechase, the $100,000 New York Turf Writers Cup at 2 3/8 miles, is slated for Thursday, August 20. Fisher said both Moscato and Snap Decision, who won Wednesday's Jonathan Kiser Novice at Saratoga, are likely participants.

“We'll probably run them both in the Turf Writers,” he said.

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Enable Has Come Forward Since Eclipse, Will Face Three Ballydoyle Rivals In Saturday’s King George

Superstar Enable will face three rivals in her bid to win an historic third King George VI and Queen Elizabeth QIPCO Stakes at Ascot on Saturday. The champion racemare began her 2020 campaign with a second-place finish to Ghaiyyath in the Group 1 Coral-Eclipse.

“I was very clear with everyone before Sandown that she had found it difficult to get to racing fitness since she is now a 6-year-old mare,” trainer John Gosden told racingpost.com. “She is a big powerful lady and certainly not of the neater, lighter-framed, type. She ran very well in the Eclipse and the race has had the desired effect of bringing her on.”

Ryan Moore will ride Japan, while Oisin Murphy picks up the mount on Anthony Van Dyck and William Buick will ride Sovereign.

Enable would become the only horse to win three King George VI and Queen Elizabeth QIPCO Stakes with herself (2017,2019), Swain (1997,1998) and Dahlia (1973,1974) all on two wins currently.

More history could be made as Enable's evergreen jockey Frankie Dettori bids to equal Lester Piggott's record of seven victories in the prestigious Group 1.

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Colonial Downs Takes 108 Entries For Nine-Race Card On Opening Monday

Colonial Downs will usher in its second season of Thoroughbred racing under the ownership of the Colonial Downs Group on Monday July 27 with nine pari-mutuel races getting underway at 5:30 PM (EDT). There will be two non-wagering steeplechase events prior at 4:00 and 4:40 PM.

One hundred and eight horses were entered for opening night's card and $316,000 in purse money will be distributed. Seven of the nine flat races will be contested over Colonial's massive Secretariat Turf Course — the widest grass racing surface in the country at 180 feet across — and the other two will held over the 1 1/4-miles dirt track.

The featured race is a $42,000 turf allowance for 2-year-olds at 5½ furlongs. A field of nine will battle in the eighth race including seven last-time-out winners. The only two that did not prevail most recently were Sunshine City and Crown and Coke, who raced in stakes at Royal Ascot and Churchill Downs, respectively.

A jockey colony of some 30 riders will be based in New Kent for the six-week meet including Trevor McCarthy, last year's top jock with 15 wins. Through July 22 this year, McCarthy is ranked 30th in the country by purse earnings with $2,576,300. Daniel Centeno, who tied for second with 13 victories, is back as is Forest Boyce, who finished fourth in the standings. The trio will be busy on opening night. McCarthy and Boyce have nine mounts each while Centeno has eight.

Veteran jockeys Chuck Lopez and Alberto Delgado are part of the group. Lopez competed at Colonial in 2019 and collected seven wins. The 59-year-old has 4,301 wins from over 30,000 starts. Delgado will be riding for the first time since 2017. The 56-year-old, who has 2,932 victories from over 25,000 starts, rode California Chrome to his first two wins in 2013. Lopez has six mounts Monday while Delgado has two.

Mike Stidham and Jamie Ness, co-leading trainers at the 2019 meet with 10 wins each, have horses entered Monday. The former, who won the 2019 Virginia Oaks with Carnival Colors and Kitten's Joy with Doc Boy last summer, has Princess Grace in the seventh and Palio in the fifth. The latter sends Hazels Little Man out in the featured eighth.

Also supporting the opener are Graham Motion, whose English Bee captured the 2019 New Kent County Virginia Derby (G3), and Wesley Ward, whose Four Wheel Drive won the Exacta Systems Rosie's Stakes then went on the win the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint (G1). Motion's' Dance Recital appears in the seventh and Ward's Sunshine City competes in the feature. Both Ferris Allen, Colonial's all-time leading conditioner, and King Leatherbury, fifth leading all-time trainer nationally with 6,503 victories, have a pair entered.

The track will feature a nightly All-Turf Pick-5 wager that covers the program's final five races. Colonial is in a unique position because its track lights illuminate the grass course instead of the dirt oval. Three of the five legs in Monday's wager have either a 13- or 14-horse field.

The early steeplechase races will be a staple of every Monday card this summer. Opening day's pair feature 10-horse fields and seven in each raced most recently in Virginia — either at the Middleburg Spring Races or the Virginia Gold Cup at Great Meadow which both took place in June.

The 2020 race meet will be presented “spectator-free” out of an abundance of caution so Colonial Downs' personnel can focus extra care towards key operating areas, such as the jockeys' quarters, paddock supervision, racing office and the stabling area.

The season continues through September 2 with cards every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday at 5:30 PM. The Grade 3 Virginia Derby highlights the meet and will be contested on Tuesday September 1 along with other five stakes.

In Virginia, wagering on Colonial Downs races can be placed at any Rosie's Gaming Emporium or at any VA-Horseplay Off Track Betting location. Online betting is available through TVG.com, Xpressbet.com, Twinspires.com and NYRABets.com. All of Colonial's races will be aired on TVG. More details are at colonialdowns.com/wagering.

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