Catalina Cruiser © Benoit Photo
Hronis Racing’s classy Catalina Cruiser, champion sprinter of the 2018 Del Mar summer season, figures to be a solid favorite Saturday in the 78th running of the Grade II $200,000 San Diego Handicap at a mile and one-sixteenth on the main dirt track. Post time for the first of ten races is 2 p.m.
Catalina Cruiser, a five-year-old son of Union Rags trained by John Sadler, will have Joel Rosario in the saddle as he attempts to repeat his San Diego victory of a year ago when he carried 115 pounds, eight less than he will pack Saturday. He also won the seven-furlong Pat O’Brien Stakes last season to earn top sprinter honors.
Beaten only once in six lifetime races, a sixth in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile last November at Churchill Downs, Catalina Cruiser comes into the San Diego from a victory in the True North at Belmont Park June 7.
Opposing Catalina Cruiser will be Core Beliefs (119, Flavien Prat); Higher Power (116, Drayden
Van Dyke); Draft Pick (118, Martin Garcia), Mongolian Groom (115, Abel Cedillo), and Dr. Dorr (119, Rafael Bejarano).
Co-feature Saturday is the Grade II $200,000 San Clemente Stakes for three-year-old fillies at one mile over the infield Jimmy Durante Turf Course. The contest attracted ten fillies – Keeper Ofthe Stars, Seranitsa, Mucho Unusual, Devils Dance, Apache Princess, Over Emphasize, Harmless, Stillwater Cove, Maxim Rate and Kallinki.