Tag: Racing

Trainer Bob Baffert will saddle the favorite in the Runhappy Del Mar Futurity Sunday on the closing day card of the Del Mar summer stand.

Of course saying that about Del Mar's all-time leading trainer and the championship race for 2-year-olds is akin to stating that the sun will rise in the morning, a cat has a tail and Italian restaurants serve red sauce.

The Futurity has been run a total of 75 times. Of the most recent 27 editions, Baffert has won 16 of them. Surely, somewhere, somehow, someone has won a race more times than he has with this $300,000 Grade I test at seven furlongs. But if so, it is not plainly obvious.

Besides the Futurity, which will go as Race 10 on an 11-race program, the track also will present the 12th running of the Del Mar Juvenile Turf, a mile spin on the Jimmy Durante Turf Course that is for 2-year-olds. The $100,000 test has drawn a grouping of nine and will be presented as Race 7 on the afternoon.

In this year's Futurity Baffert has a colt on the rise named Prince of Monaco, who is two-for-two including a smashing score in the Best Pal Stakes last out on August 13 where he won for fun in the Grade 3 sprint. The son of champion Speightstown who fetched $950,000 at auction as a yearling, Prince of Monaco is owned by an extended partnership that consists of SF Racing, Starlight Racing, Madaket Stables, Dianne Bashore, Robert Masterson, Wave Edge Capital, Catherine Donovan, Tom Ryan and Stonestreet Stables.

So impressive was “Monaco” in his Best Pal score that Del Mar's morning line maker Jon White has hung him the 2/5 favorite for the Futurity. Top rider Flavien Prat, who handled the colt in his last start, will come back from the east to ride the youngster once more.

In the Juvenile Turf, the likely favorite is Pin Oak Stud's Boltage, who runs out of the Richard Mandella barn and will have veteran Ramon Vazquez in the boot. He's been made 2-1 in the turf test's morning line, mostly based on a smart one-mile turf tally in a straight maiden affair here on August 24.

Here are the full fields for the two stakes from the rail out with riders and their morning line odds:

RUNHAPPY DEL MAR FUTURITY – Prince of Monaco; David Hinkins' Valiant Knight (Erick Garcia, 50-1); SF Racing, Starlight Racing, et al's Mirahmadi (Juan Hernandez, 8-1); Great Friends Stables or Davis' Raging Torrent (Antonio Fresu, 5-1); SF Racing, Starlight Racing, et al's Rothschild (Ramon Vazquez, 5-1); Don't Tell My Wife Stables' Next Level (Kent Desormeaux, 12-1), and Ruis Racing's Mary's Boy Bolt (Ricardo Gonzalez, 15-1).

DEL MAR JUVENILE TURF – Peter Redekop's Andreadytorumble (Umberto Rispoli, 12-1); WSS Racing's Osage Creek (Mike Smith, 15-1); Boltage; Colbart Stables or Michael McCarthy, et al's Lord Bullingdon (Prat, 8-1); Team Valor International's Sea Singer (Fresu, 4-1); Jaime Renella's Des Doigts (Edwin Maldonado, 15-1); Shanderella Stables et al's Glandford (Hector Berrios, 6-1); Amerman Racing's Endlessly (Hernandez, 5/2), and Charles Marquis' Bear River (Desormeaux, 30-1).

Besides Prince of Monaco, Baffert also saddles Mirahmadi in the Futurity. The Into Mischief colt is still a maiden, but has been competitive in his three starts.

The race also has an interesting entrant in Valiant Knight, a well-bred son of Uncle Mo who has spent his summer winning several races in Wyoming at places like Energy Downs, Wyoming Downs and Sweetwater Downs. He'll have to lace them up tight in Sunday's headliner.

First post for the 31st and final card of the 84th summer session at Del Mar is 1:30 p.m.

The post Baffert-Trained Best Pal Winner Prince Of Monaco Leads Del Mar Futurity appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Every year barns come to Del Mar loaded with fresh 2-year-olds. Some make their debut at the seaside oval and reveal that they need more work or more seasoning. Others shine in their maiden races, prompting a change in plans or to simply stay the course mapped out before they came here. Those plans usually involve running on closing weekend of the Del Mar summer meet in one of the two big juvenile races, either the G1 Debutante or the G1 Futurity.

Saturday we'll see the crop of 2-year old fillies who have weathered the scrutiny and passed the tests of the earlier weeks, earning a spot in the 73rd running of the G1 FanDuel Racing Del Mar Debutante. Fourteen will go postward led by the daughter of a Hall of Famer.

Tamara burst on the scene last month with a maiden win at Del Mar. It was an eye-catching performance, not only for the impressive way in which she came from off the pace to win the race but also her strikingly resemblance to her mother. The daughter of Beholder has done nothing but impress her trainer.

“She trains very forward, very smart,” Richard Mandella points out. “She's gifted, she can run. So far just nothing but good things from her.”

She'll have to bring her 'A' game to beat this group, which consists of the top two finishers in the G3 Sorrento earlier in the meet.

Dreamfyre took the lead that day and never looked back, winning by 3 ½ lengths over race favorite Benedetta. It was her second victory in as many career starts and her second stakes win. She took down the Everitt Nevin at Pleasanton in her debut in July.

“She's talented,” trainer O. J. Jauregui says. “Whenever I ask her to do something, she does it really nice. The two races she ran, she ran really well. She's been great.”

Jauregui doesn't believe they have to send her right out of the gate for her to run her best race.

“She's definitely got speed,” Jauregui says, “and she's very wicked on the lead but I also believe she can rate. I will leave it up to the jock.”

She'll have to contend with Benedetta again. The daughter of City of Light was 7 ½ lengths better than the rest of the field of seven that ran in the Sorrento.

A horse that might keep Dreamfyre company on the front end is the winner of the $125,000 CTBA Stakes at Del Mar last month. Pushiness beat a good group of Cal-breds that day, her second wire-to-wire score in as many career starts. The daughter of Kantharos hails from the Michael McCarthy barn. She broke her maiden by six lengths at Santa Anita in June.

“Obviously it's a big step up in class but she's been very good right from the start,” McCarthy notes. “She's stretching out in trip from 5 ½ to seven eighths. We'll see how she bounces out of there and see where she puts herself.”

The G1 Debutante is a 7-furlong test. It's the 10th race on the Saturday card. Approximate post time is 6 p.m.

Here's the field from the rail with the jockeys and morning odds:

1. Julias Dream (Ricky Gonzalez, 5-1);
2. Next Right Thing (Emily Ellingwood, 30-1);
3. Pretty Layla (Drayden Van Dyke, 30-1);
4. Benedetta (Victor Espinoza, 10-1);
5. Hope Road (Tiago Pereira, 12-1);
6. Chatalas (Juan Hernandez, 5-1);
7. Dreamfyre (Hector Berrios, 4-1);
8. Pushiness (Umberto Rispoli, 8-1);
9. Tamara (Mike Smith, 7/2);
10. Where's My Ring (Joe Bravo, 15-1);
11. Motet (Abdul Alsagoor, 50-1);
12. Gate to Paradise (Kent Desormeaux, 20-1);
13. Laurent (Edwin Maldonado, 6-1), and
14. Cheeky Gal (Antonio Fresu, 30-1).

The post Like Mother, Like Daughter? Beholder’s ‘Gifted’ Tamara Headlines Del Mar Debutante appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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