By Jim Charvat

Muth © Benoit Photo

BAFFERT DOUBLES DOWN WITH PRAT, $2M HORSE IN G3 BEST PAL

Bob Baffert is serious about this year’s G3 Best Pal, set to be run Sunday afternoon at Del Mar. He will bring two of his top 2-year-olds to the race in an attempt to win it a record 10th time.

Muth was purchased five months ago by Zedan Racing Stables for $2 million. He rewarded his connections with an impressive win at first asking on closing day at Santa Anita. The son of Good Magic is expected to go off as the odds-on favorite off of his dominating 8 ¾ length initial victory.

“He’s very quick, very fast,” Baffert says. “You hope that they can rate a little bit and not go too fast too early.”

Juan Hernandez returns to ride.

Not to be outdone, his stablemate, Prince of Monaco, also won at first asking and crossed the wire eight lengths the best at Los Alamitos. He’s another promising juvenile in the Baffert barn who is good enough to lure jockey Flavien Prat from his regular gig at Saratoga.

“I hate to run them together,” Baffert says. “I remember we used to have allowance races back in the day but now we don’t. Once you break a maiden you have to run in a stakes.”

The son of Speightstown broke his maiden with Hernandez up but even Juan isn’t talented enough to ride both horses so Baffert turned to Prat.

“I asked him if he’d come out and ride a horse for me and he said ‘Yes’,” Baffert notes. “Must have been a quiet day in New York. He’s going to be coming out and riding some horses for me at the end of the meet, too. I have some nice 2-year olds and he’s going to be riding some of those.”

Prat will ride six other races Sunday, five on horses out of the Mark Glatt barn.

“His agent texted me he was going to be here on that day,” Glatt says. “I had a number of open mounts for one reason or another. He’s one of the top riders in the country so I’d be a fool not to use him if I can.”

While all the attention will be paid on the Baffert duo, there are three other horses in the race.

Raging Torrent won at first asking opening weekend at Del Mar, giving his trainer Doug O’Neill the confidence to try the graded stake.

“He’s doing well,” O’Neill says. “He came out of his maiden win in good shape. Drew the rail but it’s a short field. It’s a tough race but he’s a tough horse. He’s a big, tall, long 2-year-old that acts like he’ll run the added ground with no problem.”

Tranche broke his maiden in a stakes race when he went wire-to-wire in the Fasig-Tipton Futurity at Santa Anita in June. His seven-length victory not only surprised the bettors, who sent him off at 20-1, but also his trainer Luis Mendez.

“I thought we had a chance to win it,” Mendez says, “but not that impressive.”

Tranche began his career in Kentucky and ran a respectable third in the $200,000 Kentucky Juvenile at Churchill Downs during Derby Week.

Trainer Edward Freeman sends out Who Is Pavel. The colt has yet to break his maiden and ran fifth in his debut last month at Del Mar.

The Best Pal is a prep for the G1 Runhappy Del Mar Futurity on September 10. Past winners of the prep include 2016 Kentucky Derby victor Nyquist; Timber Country, Swiss Yodeler and Best Pal himself, when the race was called the Balboa Stakes. Last year the ill-fated Havnameltdown won the race for Baffert.

It’s the fourth race on the 10-race Sunday card. The approximate post time for the six-furlong sprint is 3:30 p.m.

Here’s the field from the rail with jockeys and morning line odds: Raging Torrent (Antonio Fresu, 15-1); Tranche (Edwin Maldonado, 4-1); Who Is Pavel (Mario Gutierrez, 30-1); Muth (3/5), and Prince of Monaco (9/5).

BERRIOS RIDING HIGH IN THE JOCKEY STANDINGS AND HERE TO STAY

Last year at this time jockey Hector Berrios was the new kid on the block. He had moved his tack from Gulfstream Park in South Florida to Southern California. It was a trial period for the 30-year-old jockey, a make it or go back to Florida scenario.

So Berrios and his agent, Michael Burns, hustled the backside, getting up early every morning and going from one barn to another, introducing themselves to the trainers and hoping one or two would give the ambitious jockey a chance to prove himself.

Once given the opportunity, Berrios took advantage, proving to everybody watching that he could ride horses. He started racking up wins and by the end of his first meet at Del Mar Berrios had 18 victories, fifth best in the jockey standings, and over $1.3 million in earnings.

His success continued at Santa Anita and now, one year later, Berrios has established himself as one of the best jocks in the room, getting calls from the likes of D’Amato, Sadler and Mandella.

“It’s fun watching him do so well,” Burns says, “and getting the opportunity to ride good horses. We are fortunate to have some of California’s most notable owners and trainers as clients and we just want to keep on achieving.”

Berrios confirms that the trial period is over.

“Now it’s clear I’m staying here for good,” Berrios notes. “My family’s already here and we’re happy and excited to stay here.”

Berrios and his wife, Stefanni, have two young children, a boy and a girl.

Berrios posted back-to-back riding triples during the second weekend of the summer meet in July, scoring in two Graded stakes. For a couple of days he displaced Juan Hernandez from the top spot in the jockey standings.

“When one is confident and you know what you have, things become easier,” Berrios says. “You transmit that confidence to the horses and things go well.”

He’s cooled off a bit since that weekend but, going into Saturday’s races, he still sits in second place in the jockey standings with 13 victories and over $1 million in earnings. He gives a lot of the credit to Burns.

“Everything,” Berrios says. “It’s he who has the dialogue with the trainers and the owners.”

The biggest hurdle for Berrios has been the language barrier and communication. But like every other obstacle in his life, Berrios has met it head-on.

“I think he’s done very well,” Burns says of Berrios. “He has improved his English significantly. I see him talk with trainers after the races and give good feedback to all of them. They all seem very pleased and I see big improvement.”

Improvement off the track and on, indicated by the fact he now has his Breeders’ Cup horse. Berrios’ score in the G1 Bing Crosby was a ‘Win and You’re In’ for the Breeders’ Cup Sprint.

“Thank God, now we have The Chosen Vron,” Berrios says. “And we can only hope there will be many more horses to add to the list.”

IMPRESSIVE FIELD SIZES CONTINUE AS MEET REACHES HALFWAY MARK

As we reach the halfway point of the Del Mar summer meet, field sizes continue to exceed industry-wide standards. Three weeks into the meet and the average field size is 9.28, just a tick off last year’s mark at this time.

“Anytime we’re over nine, we’re very happy,” racing secretary David Jerkens says. “I don’t know a track in the country that wouldn’t kill for this kind of product.

“It’s all about one thing,” Jerkens continues. “Horsemen supporting the entry box. We saw that, as we typically do, in week one and week two. Week three was solid. All in all, the staff is doing a great job and, knock on wood, everyone seems comfortable.”

Last week averages dipped slightly, but that’s expected as the meet progresses.

“We do have a little bit of a drop in the number of horses at Del Mar from a year ago which we kind of expected,” Jerkens notes. “We’ve actually run the same amount of grass races over the past three weeks as we did last year. So from our standpoint, it’s going according to plan.”

The average field size for the 60 dirt races that have been run in the first three weeks of the meet is 8.62, the first time it’s dipped below nine this year. The AFS for the 48 turf races is still an impressive 10.10 and for stakes races, which can be five- or six-horse affairs, Del Mar is averaging 9.47.

“The middle of the meet you’re just trying to navigate through the fact that most of your inventory participated in the first three weeks,” Jerkens says. “Typically horses are on a three- or four-week cycle. We’re going to have some trainers who are going to look and see maybe there’s another race they’d rather jump in before the end of the meet.”

As for the second half of the summer meet at Del Mar, Jerkens likes what he sees.

“The nominations are out for the Del Mar Oaks and we’ve attracted some new faces for that,” Jerkens states. “I’ve released the last condition book and now everybody can see what the menu is and make their decisions. Things typically explode the last week or so.”

Still to come, Pacific Classic Day on Labor Day weekend and the Debutante and Futurity on closing weekend.

COOLING OUT:  Jockey Kent Desormeaux has appealed his three-day suspension for careless riding and will ride all of his mounts this weekend. It’s already paying off. He won three races on Friday, including the feature, the $125,000 Graduation Stakes on Lord Prancealot…Trainer Jeff Bonde says Lord Prancealot came out of his race in good shape and will be pointed to the $125,000 I’m Smokin’ Stakes on September 8…Geovanni Franco is expected back riding today after missing the past two days with a sore knee. One of the two mounts he took off on Friday, Double Jab, won the third race with Desormeaux in the saddle…Del Mar is offering another $1 million Pick 6 guarantee today. If only one person hits the pick six, they will get the pot and Del Mar will put in whatever it takes to get the prize up to $1 million. If there is no single winner, the pot will carry over to Sunday when there will be a “mandatory payout” day…Notable works for Saturday: Dirt – Queen ofthe Temple (4f, :48.40); Tripoli (4f, :46.20); Moose Mitchell (5f, 59.60); National Treasure (5f, :59.60); Offlee Naughty (5f, 1:01.80); Stilleto Boy (5f, :59.40), and Window Shopping (6f, 1:13.40). A total of 189 horses put in official workouts.

Del Mar Statistics

 Jockey Standings
(Current Through August 11, 2023 Inclusive)

Trainer Standings
(Current Through August 11, 2023 Inclusive)

Winning Favorites Report
(Current Through August 11, 2023 Inclusive)

Winning favorites -- 43 out of 124 -- 34.68%
Winning favorites on dirt -- 26 out of 70 -- 37.14%
Winning favorites on turf -- 17 out of 54 -- 31.48%
Winning odds-on favorites -- 9 out of 17 -- 52.94%
In-the-Money favorites -- 74 out of 124 -- 59.68%
In-the-Money odds-on favorites -- 12 out of 17 -- 70.59%