Giant Expectations © Del Mar Photo

GIANT EXPECTATIONS RETURNS TO SCENE, RACE OF MAJOR TRIUMPH

Two years ago, Gary Stevens chose to ride Giant Expectations over stablemate Kobe’s Back in the Pat O’Brien Handicap and directed the then 4-year-old colt to a 1 ½-length victory that was the 97^th stakes win at Del Mar for Stevens.

Stevens retired at the end of 2018 with an even 100 Del Mar stakes victories. Peter Eurton-trained Giant Expectations, a New York-bred son of Frost Giant, will race at Del Mar for the first time since the 2017 Breeders’ Cup Mile as part of a field of seven entered Wednesday for the $200,000 Grade II seven-furlong test Saturday.

The Pat O’Brien concludes the summer sprint stakes series that began with Cistron winning the six-furlong Bing Crosby on July 27. The Bing Crosby was a “Win and You’re In” qualifier for the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Sprint; the Pat O’Brien is a counterpart event for the $1 million Dirt Mile.

Giant Expectations has gone 0-for-8 in 2018-19, making four starts each year and carrying five different jockeys. But Eurton, who again is running two horses in the O’Brien – Cool Bobby joins Giant Expectations, hopes that a return to the site, and race, of his biggest success will benefit the chestnut runner.

“He’s training well and he’s run some very productive races since he won it last time,” Eurton said Wednesday morning. The most recent was an ungraded $200,000 mile event, The Commentator, at Belmont Park on May 27 in which he was a close second to Pat On the Back.

“He fell to his nose leaving the gate, grabbed both quarters, lost a lot of ground, went five wide around the turn and got beat an inch,” Eurton said. “He’s probably better at one-turn, seven-eighths than he is at a mile or around two turns. He likes this track, so we’ll see.”

The field from the rail: Lieutenant Dan (Abel Cedillo), Chief Cicatriz (Ruben Fuentes), Jalen Journey (Norberto Arroyo, Jr.), Giant Expectations (Drayden Van Dyke), Seven Trumpets  (Victor Espinoza), American Anthem (Rafael Bejarano) and Catalina Cruiser (Flavien Prat).

BET ON IT: ZUSHA WON’T BE 100-1 IN TRANQUILITY LAKE STAKES

Trainer Gary Mandella said he was “shocked” when Zusha went off at odds of  100-1 in a field of nine in the Grade III $100,000 Rancho Bernardo Handicap on August 11.

He felt somewhat vindicated when the 4-year-old Kentucky-bred daughter of Congrats outran those odds and finished fifth, beaten only 3 ¼ lengths by Danuska’s My Girl.

“It shocked me that she was 100-1, but that’s what the public thought,” Mandella said Wednesday morning. “She proved me right, and them wrong.”

On Friday, just 12 days after the 6 ½-furlong Rancho Bernardo, Zusha is entered in a field of six for the one-mile, $85,000 Tranquility Lake Stakes. Oddsmaker Russ Hudak lists her at 4-1 on the morning line, co-fourth choice.

Owned by Rafael Steinbruch, Zusha has two wins from 14 career starts and earnings of $121,781. She went into the Rancho Bernardo off a mile allowance level victory at Santa Anita on May 31.

“She was really a victim of a lot of allowance races that we intended to run her in not filling,” Mandella said. “That’s not a criticism of Del Mar. That’s the way it is on the Southern California circuit right now.Allowances don’t fill the way they used to.“When she’s fresh and sharp, she can sprint with graded stakes level horses, so we wound up with the toughest (female) sprinters around in the Rancho Bernardo. It depends on the trip, but I think it is realistic to bring her back in 12 days. She’s ready to run.”

The field from the rail: Kaydetre (Brice Blanc, 7-2), Lady Suebee (Victor Espinoza, 8-1), Yuvetsi (Ruben Fuentes, 4-1), Zusha (Drayden Van Dyke, 4-1), Just a Smidge (Martin Garcia, 3-1), Vibrance (Flavien Prat, 5-2).

PRAT, O’NEILL HANG TOUGH ATOP JOCKEY, TRAINER STANDINGS

Drayden Van Dyke notched one win on Sunday while meet-leading rider Flavien Prat was shut out. But Prat still has a 27-20 lead entering the penultimate week of the meeting.

The most significant development in the final day of Week 5 was three wins by Victor Espinoza. The Hall of Fame rider continued in his quest to convince horsemen and fans he’s fully recovered from the serious injuries of 2018 with wins on Flagstaff ($3.60) in the fourth race, It’s Fitting ($37.60) in the sixth and Midcourt ($31.00) in the eighth.

Espinoza is seventh in the standings with 10 wins. His 62 mounts are the fewest of any of the Top 10 riders.

The trainer standings remained static at the top when neither Doug O’Neill nor Richard Baltas found the winners circle. O’Neill leads with 17 to 14 for Baltas.

TVG PACIFIC CLASSIC WIN PUTS HIGHER POWER ON NATIONAL TOP 10

Saturday’s victory in the $1 million Grade I TVG Pacific Classic proved eye-catching enough to voters in the National Thoroughbred Racing Association’s Top Thoroughbred Poll that the 4-year-old son of Medaglia d’Oro debuted in the tenth position in this week’s list.

Trained by John Sadler for Hronis Racing, Higher Power notched a 5 ¼- length victory – his first stakes win in 13 career starts. That effort against a field which included Grade 1-winners Seeking the Soul and Pavel was enough to earn Higher Power 42 points in the balloting, sliding him into the tenth spot after previously being unranked.

“We’re so blessed to have great horses and a great trainer with a great staff,” owner Kosta Hronis said after the race. “I can’t say enough about that.”

The appearance of Higher Power marked the only major shift within the poll’s top 10. As he has for nearly five months now, multiple Grade 1-winner Bricks and Mortar holds down the top position with authority, earning 36 first-place votes and 387 points. The son of Giant’s Causeway has won all five of his starts in 2019 with his most recent victory coming when he captured the Grade 1 Arlington Million XXXVII Stakes on August 10.

Multiple Grade 1-winner McKinzie registered 3 first-place votes and 337 points to remain in the second spot with reigning champion turf female Sistercharlie moving up one spot to third with 276 points.

Leading distaffer Midnight Bisou (272 points) sits fourth heading into her expected start in Saturday’s Grade 1 Personal Ensign Stakes at Saratoga Race Course. Midnight Bisou has won all five of her starts this year and will be attempting to secure her fifth career Grade 1-win this weekend.

Midnight Bisou’s stablemate Mitole (166 points) is also expected to be in action at Saratoga in the Grade 1 Forego Stakes, and sits just behind his fellow Steve Asmussen-trainee in fifth place.  Fellow Grade 1 winners World of Trouble (156 points) and Imperial Hint (116) rank sixth and seventh, respectively, followed by Maximum Security (75) in eighth and Elate (73) – who is also expected to run in the Personal Ensign – ninth.

Sadler has said that Higher Power might run in the Awesome Again Stakes at Santa Anita at the end of September or train up to the Breeders’ Cup Classic there in November.

CLOSERS – Selected works from 246 officially timed over the last three mornngs: Monday – Backshot (5f, 1:00.20), Big Score (5f, 1:00.80), Tuesday- Cezanne (4f, :48.80), Danuska’s My Girl (4f, :52.20), Shedaresthedevil (4f, :49.60), Stratford End (4f, :47.60), Immediate Impact (5f, 1:01.20), Mucho Gusto (5f, :59.20), Schrodinger (5f, 1:02.20); Wednesday – Inspiressa (3f, :35.60), Garth (4f, :47.00), Nolo Contesto (4f, :48.80), Kahairiya (5f, :59.60), Kingly (5f, 1:01.80), Extra Hope  (6f, 1:14.40).

DEL MAR STATISTICS

Jockey Standings

(Current Through Sunday, August 18, 2019 Inclusive)

Trainer Standings

(Current Through Sunday, August 18, 2019 Inclusive)

Winning Favorites Report

(Current Through Sunday, August 18, 2019 Inclusive)

Winning favorites -- 77 out of 203 -- 37.93%

Winning favorites on dirt -- 50 out of 121 -- 41.32%

Winning favorites on turf -- 27 out of 82 -- 32.93%

Winning odds-on favorites -- 20 out of 41 -- 48.78%

In-the-Money favorites -- 143 out of 203 -- 70.44%

In-the-Money odds-on favorites -- 35 out of 41 -- 85.37%