Midnight Storm © Zoe Metz for Del Mar Thoroughbred Club
Del Mar’s four-day Thanksgiving Holiday weekend of top-level stakes action concludes Sunday with a doubleheader, the $100,000 Cecil DeMille for two-year-olds at one mile on the grass and the $100,000 Native Diver for older runners at a mile and one-eighth on the main track.
The first of nine races Sunday is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. The 15-day fall Bing Crosby Season ends Sunday, December 4.
Nine juveniles will go postward in the DeMille, carded as the sixth race. Entrants are Popular Kids, Modesto Linares; Curly’s Waterfront, Tyler Baze; Offshore, Kent Desormeaux; Hootie, Victor Espinoza; Conscripted, Alex Solis; Sword Fighter, Santiago Gonzalez; Term of Art, Joe Talamo; Vending Machine, Norberto Arroyo, Jr., and Ky. Colonel, Mike Smith. Supplementary nominees at $1,000 were Popular Kid, Term of Art and Vending Machine.
With the exceptions of Popular Kid, a non-winner, and Vending Machine, a two-time winner, including a $50,000 claimer, all other entrants are victors in a maiden race. Those with stakes experience are Popular Kid, fourth in the Oak Tree Juvenile at Pleasanton in October; Offshore, sixth in the Zuma Beach; Sword Fighter, fourth in the Juvenile Turf Sprint at Santa Anita; Term of Art, ninth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile to divisional champion Classic Empire, and Ky. Colonel, fifth in the Del Mar Juvenile Turf in early September.
Multi-stakes winning Midnight Storm, third in the Breeders’ Cup Mile behind Tourist and Tepin, will pack highweight of 125 pounds versus six strong rivals in the Native Diver, the eighth race on Sunday’s card. Flavien Prat has the call on Midnight Storm, who will be seeking to transfer his brilliant form on grass to the main dirt track. Prior to the BC Mile, the swift son of Pioneerof the Nile had reeled off three triumphs on grass, the Shoemaker Mile, Eddie Read and Del Mar Mile.
Principal challengers to Midnight Storm appear to be Hard Aces, 123 and Santiago Gonzalez; Point Piper, also 123 with Mario Gutierrez, and Imperative, 121 and Kent Desormeaux. Hard Aces, a winner of more than $1 million in his career, won the Cougar II last summer and more recently was second in the BC Marathon November 4. Point Piper was sixth in the BC Mile and won the Longacres Mile previously, while Imperative, an earner of more than $2 million in his lengthy career, comes into the race from a win in the Big Bear at Santa Anita and was fourth behind Dortmund in the 2015 Native Diver.
Completing the line-up are Ebadan, 118, Joe Talamo; Pretentious, 121, Jamie Theriot, and Blue Tone, 121, Gary Stevens, the last-named horse second to Big Cazanova in the 2014 Native Diver.