Arabian Knight © Benoit Photo
ARABIAN KNIGHT RETIRED; SWEET AZTECA ENTERS RANCHO BERNARDO
It has been a whirlwind of events over the past couple of days surrounding this weekend’s stakes races at Del Mar. On Sunday, trainer Bob Baffert announced his decision to run Arabian Knight in this Saturday’s G2 Pat O’Brien, a seven-furlong sprint against the likes of The Chosen Vron and Senor Buscador.
But before the ink could dry, Hill ‘n’ Dale Farm in Paris, Kentucky dropped a press release Monday saying the 2023 FanDuel Racing Pacific Classic winner has been retired from racing and will begin his stud career in 2025.
“He’s sound,” Baffert says. “I just couldn’t get him to where he was and I was running out of time. I was disappointed in his race in the San Diego. He’s really a good horse he just didn’t bring his ‘A’ game.”
Arabian Knight was the favorite going into the San Diego, but finished a distant fourth. Many were quick to dismiss the performance given it was the son of Uncle Mo’s first race since the Breeders’ Cup eight months earlier. But Baffert knew better. He was quoted in the press release saying ‘I don’t want another Arrogate situation’ in reference to how horse racing’s top money earner tailed off at the end of his racing career.
“You want to keep horses like that running,” Baffert states. “I was actually looking forward to running him in the Classic but I thought maybe I’d back him up to seven eighths. Juan (Hernandez) said he breezed well but not like what he had before.”
Arabian Knight put in a 5-furlong work last Saturday at Del Mar, stopping the clock at 1:00.20.
“The end game was to run him in the (Breeders’ Cup) Classic,” Baffert notes. “If you’re going to run in the Classic you have to be doing really well.”
The other big news surrounding this weekend’s stakes races at Del Mar involves Sunday’s running of the G3 Rancho Bernardo Handicap. Trainer Michael McCarthy announcing Sweet Azteca, a veritable win machine, would be entered in the six-furlong sprint for fillies and mares.
McCarthy has been dangling that carrot for local race fans over the past couple of weeks but with the stipulation that they might also consider running in the G1 Ballerina back at Saratoga. In the end, McCarthy chose Del Mar.
“We wanted to get a race in her over the track for the Breeders’ Cup,” McCarthy said.
HERNANDEZ, SADLER LEAD THE WAY IN DEL MAR STANDINGS
Juan Hernandez had a quiet week by his standards, but continues to sit on a comfortable lead in the Del Mar jockey standings after five weeks. Meanwhile John Sadler maintained his slim lead in the trainers’ standings entering the new week of racing.
Hernandez only notched two victories last week giving some ground back to his closest rivals. Umberto Rispoli had four wins to reach 20 for the meet and climb to within five victories of Hernandez. Antonio Fresu won three in a row on Sunday and his 16 wins places him within nine of the lead.
Hector I. Berrios started the week with 11 wins and won four races, two of them stakes, the G1 Del Mar Oaks with Iscreamuscream and the $150,000 Solana Beach with Moment’s Pleasure. The sweep of the weekend’s turf races was enough to earn the veteran rider ‘Jockey of the Week’ honors from the Jockey Guild.
Kyle Frey actually led the week with five victories, giving him 13 for the session. He’s followed by Reylu Gutierrez with 10, and Kazushi Kimura, Armando Ayuso and Edwin Maldonado with eight each.
Abel Cedillo completes the Top Ten with seven wins.
The top four in the rider standings are all over the $1 million mark in earnings with Hernandez also leading the way with over $1.8 million in purses.
The trainers standing is as tight as ever. Sadler still sets the pace with 12 victories followed by Bob Baffert with 11 and Phil D’Amato and Mark Glatt with 10 each. Doug O’Neill and Michael McCarthy have nine wins apiece. Peter Miller is next with seven and Jeff Mullins has put together a nice meet with six victories. Six trainers are tied with five wins: Tim Yakteen, Carla Gaines, Steve Knapp, George Papaprodromou and Bob Hess.
Two trainers are over the million dollar mark in earnings: Phil D’Amato is tops with over $1.2 million and Baffert has $1,076,760.
Average field size at Del Mar remains a healthy 8.75. AFS on the turf continues to rank among the best in the nation at 9.20.
Hronis Racing leads all owners in wins with 8 victories from 17 starts.
EDWIN MALDONADO: DEMON ON THE FRONT END, MENTOR IN THE JOCK’S ROOM
Edwin Maldonado has evolved from being a young upstart rider from Texas into a reliable veteran jockey who knows his way to the winner’s circle. The 41-year-old rider has built a reputation for being very good at getting a horse out of the gate and onto the lead and then finishing the job.
“My first year here I was riding a lot of longshots,” Maldonado says. “So I would just send the horses. Try to give them a better opportunity. I ended up winning a few on the lead like that and from then on I got horses with speed, horses that needed to be on the lead and it sort of stuck.”
Maldonado is quick to point out he gets horses who come from off the pace, too, but he acknowledges that many trainers have come to him with their speed horses.
“It’s not by choice, it just happened,” Maldonado concedes. “This is a speed track and Santa Anita is a speed track so I don’t mind at all.”
Maldonado has been riding at Del Mar since 2011. He won his first stakes race at the seaside oval in 2012 aboard Nechez Dawn in the Daisycutter. He’s gone on to win a dozen stakes races here, including the G3 Torrey Pines on Ceiling Crusher last year and the G3 Native Diver with Defunded in 2022.
Problem for Maldonado these days is not finding horses to ride, but getting those horses into the race. In a day and age of small fields, Maldonado says he has encountered the opposite the first few weeks at Del Mar.
“The meet’s going good just a lot of horses not getting in,” Maldonado says. “Too many horses in one race so you get excluded, you get in the ‘alsos’ (Also Eligibles). That’s the only downside. Everything else is going great.”
Maldonado has eight wins to his credit, good enough to take his customary spot in the Top Ten in the jockey standings. He’s 78-8-6-6 after Sunday’s racing, with earnings of $399,956.
“Competition is always there, it’s always fun,” Maldonado says of this year’s jockey colony at Del Mar. “I love competition. This is a great place. It’s like a paid vacation for us. The track is good. I’m just hoping to finish strong.”
Maldonado is now one of those jockeys the younger riders look up to and go to for advice.
“I’m not 20 anymore,” Maldonado says. “I feel like 20. The guys who really want to learn come and ask questions and I’m more than happy to teach them what I learned. Just like I learned from Mike Smith and Victor Espinoza when I came here. I like to pay it back. So I feel safe following them around (out on the track). That’s what we’re here for, to help the sport grow.”
COOLING OUT: Trainer Craig Lewis says Moment’s Pleasure came out of her win in Sunday’s $150,000 Solana Beach in “Great shape.” He does not have a next race in mind but feels the sky is the limit for his 3-year-old daughter of Clubhouse Ride…Nominations close at midnight tonight for the G1 FanDuel Racing Pacific Classic and its compliment of four graded stakes on the undercard. The ‘Classic’ is slated for Saturday, August 31 at Del Mar…Tickets for the upcoming Bing Crosby Meet went on sale last week. This year’s fall meet opens October 31 and is highlighted by the 2024 Breeders’ Cup on November 1 and 2. It also features the Turf Festival, two weekends of graded stakes turf racing beginning on Thanksgiving Day, November 28…Notable works this week, all on the dirt. Monday – Easter (5f, 1:00.40); Exaulted (5f, :59.80); Stronghold (5f, 1:01.00) and Planetario (7f, 1:25.00). Tuesday – Newgate (3f, :36.60) and National Treasure (4f, :48.00). Wednesday – Big City Lights (3f, :37.60) and Order and Law (4f, :49.00). Thursday – Coffee in Bed (4f, :48.80).