Rock N Rye | Horse Racing Free Tips

Baffert To Saddle Three Out Of Five Entries In Sunday’s Bob Hope Stakes

Trainer Bob Baffert has Sunday's Grade 3 Bob Hope Stakes at Del Mar surrounded.

The white-haired, Hall of Fame conditioner has not one, not two, but three of the five 2-year-olds in the lineup for the seven-furlong headliner that carries a $100,000 purse. It will go as the day's 8th race on a nine-race program that has a first post of 12:30 p.m.

The Baffert threesome consists of SF Racing, Starlight Racing, et al's Messier; Baoma Corp's Kamui, and HRH Prince Sultan Bin Mishal Al Saud's Winning Map.

The rest of the compact lineup is filled by Lovingier, London or Zondio's Rock N Rye and MyRacehorse.com and Spendthrift Farm's Forbidden Kingdom.

However, trainer Walther Solis indicating Friday morning that Rock N Rye would be scratched from the Hope in favor of a stakes for California breds later on.

Baffert is the king of the 2-year-old set at Del Mar – and he's some degree of royalty at other tracks around the country in that regard, too. By way of example locally, he's won Del Mar's top race for 2-year-olds, the Del Mar Futurity, 14 times. When it comes to the Bob Hope, which has been run locally seven times, Baffert has headed to the winner's circle after it four times already.

Here's the full field in post-position order with riders and morning line odds:

Messier (Flavien Prat, 8/5)
Kamui (Abel Cedillo, 5/2)
Winning Map (Mike Smith, 7/5)
Rock N Rye (Umberto Rispoli, 15-1)
Forbidden Kingdom (Juan Hernandez, 9/2)

Favored Winning Map has run only once, but, not surprisingly, it was a dandy. The gray colt by Liam's Map scooted six furlongs at Santa Anita in 1:10.20 on October 3 to win by better than four lengths at 2-5. He's put in a series of solid works since.

Messier clicked by more than six lengths in his second start October 22 at Santa Anita in the same 1:10.20 for six furlongs. He's a bay colt by Empire Maker.

Stablemate Kamui, a Quality Road offspring, was a six-length winner at Los Alamitos on September 11 in his most recent outing.

Forbidden Kingdom, a son of Triple Crown champion American Pharoah, scored at first asking at Del Mar on August 21, then came back to run third in the Speakeasy Stakes on the grass at Santa Anita on October 1. He's trained by Hall of Fame conditioner Richard Mandella.

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Joker Boy Best In I’m Smokin’ At Del Mar

Brown, Klein, and Lebherz's Joker Boy shook off several challenges and drew away late to win by three and a half lengths in the $100,500 I'm Smokin' Stakes for California-bred 2-year-olds Saturday at Del Mar Thoroughbred Club in Del Mar, Calif.

The colt by Practical Joke had Edwin Maldonado in the irons for trainer Brian Koriner as he picked up a winner's check for $57,000 to enhance his bankroll to $99,000 and his record to two-for-two. He ran the six furlongs in 1:10.77.

Finishing second in the stakes was Lovingier, London, or Zondlo's Rock N Rye, the 7/5 race favorite, and running third was Lovingier, Beckerle or Carrillo's Thirsty Always.

The winner paid $19.80, $6.20 and $3.60 across the board. Rock N Rye returned $3.20 and $2.40, while Thirsty Always paid $2.60.

The race is part of the $4.35 million Golden State Series for California breds that consists of 36 races at five different tracks around the state. Del Mar hosts eight of them.

EDWIN MALDONADO (Joker Boy, winner) – “I told Brian (trainer Koriner) that we were going to be the real deal today. This horse is special. When I first got on him I didn't think he was a 2-year-old. He acted like an old horse. I took a hold of him the other day (when he came from far back to win his first start); today I just let him run out of there. He can run on, this horse. I have no doubt about that. He's the real deal.”

BRIAN KORINER (Joker Boy, winner) “After he won we thought of this race. We thought he might be good enough to go in the Futurity. But then you've got Bob Baffert freaks in there so we opted for the easier spot and it worked out. Now on Breeders' Cup Day they have a Cal-bred race for $150,000 or $200,000 (it is the $175,000 Golden State Juvenile Stakes at seven furlongs) and that will be next. It should be no problem for him.”

FRACTIONS: :22.03 :45.29 :57.71 1:10.77

The stakes win was the first of the meeting for rider Maldonado and his first in the I'm Smokin'. He now has nine stakes wins at Del Mar.

The stakes win was the first of the meeting for trainer Koriner and his first in the I'm Smokin'. He now has nine stakes wins at Del Mar.

The owners are Rusty Brown of Irvine, Alan Kline, and Phil Lebherz.

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Solis Prepares To Send Out Two In Best Pal, Two In Graduation At Del Mar

Trainer Walther Solis will send out two colts in each of the featured events for 2-year-olds in the next two days. Finneus and Thirsty Always are set to go in Saturday's $200,000 Grade 2 Best Pal Stakes and Mr. T's Thirsty and Rock N Rye in Sunday's $100,000 Graduation Stakes.

They are all California-bred sons of Stay Thirsty owned in partnerships and bred by Terry C. Lovingier.

“Stay Thirstys have really good minds,” Solis said Saturday morning at his Del Mar barn, gesturing toward Finneus who was being given a race-day veterinary check. “Even the colts, they act like older horses.”

Finneus comes into the Best Pal off a maiden victory at Santa Anita Park in June. Thirsty Always is 2-for-2 with the most recent being a stakes at Pleasanton on the Northern California fair circuit. The duo of Rock N Rye and Mr. T's Thirsty are the 8-5 favorite and 2-1 co-second choice, respectively, on Jon White's morning line for Sunday's Graduation Stakes.

Being a graded stake with a larger purse, the Best Pal would be a bigger feather in the cap of Solis, whose lone Del Mar Stakes victory to date came with My Fiona, the dam of Finneus, in the 2014 CTBA Stakes.

Solis, 59, formerly managed Golden Eagle Farm in Ramona for John and Betty Mabee, the longtime patriarch and matriarch of the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club and three-time Eclipse Award winners in the 1990s as the top Thoroughbred breeders in North America.

“I managed the farm for the Mabees for five years and Best Pal was before my time,” Solis said. “But when I was there we had General Challenge and a lot of other big horses. It would be nice to win a race like this. It's a hope for a small guy.”

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La Jolla, Graduation Stakes Headline Sunday Card At Del Mar

Stakes horses will once again double up for a Del Mar crowd, this time on Sunday with the presentation of the 81st La Jolla Stakes and the 70th edition of the Graduation Stakes. The races will go as the 6th and 9th races, respectively, on the shore track's 10-race program.

The La Jolla, a Grade 3 affair that carries a purse of $150,000, has drawn a half-dozen 3-year-olds for a mile and one-sixteenth jaunt on the Jimmy Durante Turf Course at Del Mar Thorughbred Club in Del Mar, Calif. The Graduation also has drawn six California-bred 2-year-old starters for its five and one-half furlong spin on the main track. It offers a purse of $100,000.

The Irish horse Cathkin Peak, owned by Sterling Stables, Nentwig, and CYBT, is a candidate to be the favorite in the La Jolla. A bay son of the Irish stallion Alhebayeb, Cathkin Peak raced once in his native land as a 2-year-old, then was purchased privately and shipped to California where he won a pair of races, including the overnight Eddie Logan at Santa Anita Park last December. He subsequently chased home the blossoming star Rock Your World in February's Pasadena Stakes, also at Santa Anita, then went on the shelf. This will be his first start in nearly six months, but trainer Phil D'Amato has put a series of steady works into him for this comeback.

Double L Stable and Natalie Baffert's Hudson Ridge hails from the powerful Bob Baffert barn and is a son of one of Baffert's Triple Crown winners, American Pharoah. The colt broke his maiden with a dead-head score in a straight maiden race at Santa Anita on May 1 and came back to win a pair of races after that, including the Cinema Stakes.

Two of the other La Jolla runners — Red Baron's Barn and Rancho Temescal's Zoffarelli and Yuesheng Zhang's Sword Zorro also first saw light of day in Ireland. The former will be making his U.S. debut in the La Jolla, while the latter owns a victory in the Singletary Stakes at Santa Anita on grass April 25.

The Graduation – like many 2-year-old races at this time of year – is a tough one to sort out with only minimal past performances to work with. Morning line maker Jon White could barely separate two of the runners, hanging Lovingier, London, and Zondlo's Rock N Rye as an 8/5 favorite, just a tick better than Lovingier, Beckerle, and Carrillo's Thirsty Always at 9/5.

Rock N Rye is a homebred by Always Thirsty who was a handy winner of a straight maiden race in his second start at Santa Anita on May 30 in his most recent outing. He's been training steadily for this return date at both San Luis Rey Downs and Del Mar.

Thirsty Always, also by Stay Thirsty, scored in his first start at Santa Anita on May 16, then shipped up to Pleasanton and captured the Nevin Stakes there on July 10.

Trainer Walther Solis conditions both juveniles.

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Here's the lineup for the La Jolla from the rail out with riders and morning line odds: Steve Moger's Stilleto Boy (Kent Desormeaux, 6-1); Gary Barber's Wyfire (Kyle Frey, 12-1); Hudson Ridge (Abel Cedillo, 5/2); Cathkin Peak (Juan Hernandez, 2-1); Zoffarelli (Drayden Van Dyke, 3-1), and Sword Zorro (Umberto Rispoli, 4-1).

The field for the Graduation lays out like this: Lovingier or Templeton Horses' Mr. T's Thirsty (Tyler Baze, 2-1); McMahon or Rudy's Trip to Spain (Frey, 2-1); Thirsty Always (apprentice Cesar Ortega); Rock N Rye (Rispoli); Moger, Burke or Estrada, et al's Northvale Road (Tiago Periera, 6-1), and Branch or Hill's Fowler Blue (Edwin Maldonado, 12-1).

First post for Sunday's card is 2 p.m.

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