By Hank Wesch

 

 

In front of a crowd of approximately 1,200, some of whom arrived more than an hour in advance, Triple Crown champion American Pharoah worked seven furlongs in 1:23.20 Sunday morning under jockey Martin Garcia.

 

Del Mar’s clockers recorded splits of :23.00, :47.20, :58.80, 1:10.60 and 1:23.20  galloping out of a mile in 1:36.40.

 

“He was more aggressive today. He didn’t work all that fast last week and he wanted to get into it today,” Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert said. “I think the track seems to be a little bit faster.

 

“We wanted to see where he is; where his energy level is. To be sure he still has it. It’s incredible that he does after all this. But he does. Then again, he’s an incredible horse.

 

“Today was very positive.  We’ll see how he comes out of this, how he cools out.”

 

American Pharoah’s likely next race is the $1.25 million Travers Stakes next Sunday at Saratoga, although Baffert did not make any specific statement.

 

“His bags are packed; he’s ready to go,” Baffert said. “We’ll see. Maybe we’ll wait ‘til tomorrow to see how he is. We’ll see.”

 

American Pharoah stepped on the track at about 7:50 a.m., drawing applause from the crowd as he jogged by, backtracking, past the grandstand. The 3-year-old son of Pioneerof the Nile stood briefly and observed goings on from near the outside rail across from the eighth pole,  then threw his head – as if to say “Let’s get on with this.”

 

There was applause as he went by the stands galloping to the start of his work, and more when it commenced on the backstretch around five and a half furlongs from the finish line and even more as he came down the stretch, passing two horses that had started works ahead of him.

 

“Just an amazing work,” said Del Mar head clocker John Malone. “He does it so effortlessly. He went that fast on a track that really isn’t fast and he did it in hand. He went by those two horses in the stretch…..just inhaled them. Extremely impressive.”

 

Back at the Baffert barn, there were 60 people arrayed in a security-established arc with cameras, cell phones and other devices recording American Pharoah’s cool-out walk and bath.

 

“Bob didn’t give me any instructions, just said to make him happy,” Garcia said. “He worked really, really good. More even than the other day.”

 

Baffert was asked about the mare Beholder and her extremely impressive performance in Saturday’s Pacific Classic.

 

“She was amazing. Simply amazing,” Baffert said. “I don’t know about him (Pharoah) running against her in Kentucky.  But I sure hope she’s his first date down there next year.”

Beholder, who spectacularly became the first female runner to win the TVG-Pacific Classic, stood in her outdoor pen adjacent to the Richard Mandella barn Sunday morning, greeting a group of picture-taking with American Pharoah-style class and poise Sunday morning.

 

Folks from her inner circle of connections and outer circle of followers continued to marvel at the 8 ¼-length victory in a time of 1:59.77 that was .66 off the dirt track record (1:59.11) of Candy Ride in the 2003 Pacific Classic. Beholder was accorded a Beyer Speed figure of 114 for the effort, the highest such number of the year, topping a 113 by Honor Code. Here’s what they were saying:

 

Jockey Gary Stevens walked through the stable area and confirming to several questioners that: “Yes, she did it on her own.” Not at his urging.

 

“I’ve never felt anything like that and when we crossed under the finish line, I cried,” Stevens said. “I told Richard (Mandella) that and he said, ‘I did too’ … I had 95 text messages when I came out of the jockeys room afterward and I spent a good part of the night answering them … Between her and American Pharoah this is a great year for racing. Now we have to grab hold and go with it.”

 

Stevens said he celebrated the win with family and close friends at the Crush restaurant in Solana Beach and closed the place down. “But they close at 10.”

 

Trainer Richard Mandella looked tired and admitted to it in his stable office. “She (Beholder) is tired this morning and she came out of it better than I did,” Mandella said. “Last night you could have run her again and she might have gone just as fast, she was feeling that strong. But this morning it hits her and she’s tired.”

 

Mandella and his family and friends went to a restaurant at the Rancho Valencia Resort and Hotel. “They’ve got a drink called the Bourbon Beast which I found very interesting,” he said. “We had a great time.”

 

Beholder’s performance, coupled with a win earlier in the Clement L. Hirsch, made Beholder a “Win and You’re In” qualifier for both the $3 million Breeders’ Cup Distaff and the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic on October 31 at Keeneland in Kentucky.

 

“Obviously a lot of windows are open, we have a lot of options,” Mandella said. “We’ll take it a step at a time…She’ll run one more race before then if it looks to me like it’s needed. Fillies take a little more time to recuperate and we’ve got time now. The Zenyatta (Grade I $300,000, September 26 at Santa Anita) is a good possibility, probably likely, but we’ll have to wait and see.”

 

 

Pat O’Brien Stakes winner Appealing Tale and Big John B, who successfully defended his Del Mar Handicap title, both came out of the Grade II $250,000 events in good shape, their respective stables reported.

 

Appealing Tale earned a “Win and You’re In” ticket to the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile and Big John B a similar award to the $3 million Breeders’ Cup Turf at Keeneland in Kentucky on October 31.

 

Trainer Peter Miller said that a decision on the next start for Appealing Tale would be determined later but noted that “There really isn’t a (Breeders’ Cup) prep race for him at Santa Anita.”

 

Chris Davis, assistant to trainer Phil D’Amato, said that Big John B, Danas Best (fifth, Del Mar Handicap) and Midnight Storm (10^th, Pacific Classic) were all well.

 

 

 

Talco, unraced since winning the Grade I Shoemaker Mile on June 13 at Santa Anita, faces nine rivals in today’s featured Grade II $200,000 Del Mar Mile.

 

The 4-year-old French-bred son of Pivotal, owned by Kostas and Pete Hronis and trained by John Sadler, has three wins in his last five starts, and has been off the board only twice in nine U.S. races since crossing the Atlantic.

 

“He’s trained well and he’s ready to go,” Sadler said Sunday, the morning after his duo of Hard Aces and Class Leader, the former owned by the Hronis brothers, finished sixth and seventh in the Pacific Classic.

 

“Yesterday didn’t go so well, but both horses came out of it all right, so we’ll take them to Santa Anita and go from there,” Sadler said.

 

An anticipated Del Mar Mile matchup between Talco and two-time race winner Obviously dissolved Saturday when Obviously was scratched. The 7-year-old gelding, unraced in eight months, worked four furlongs on the turf course in 1:01.40 Sunday morning for a possible race in the $1 million Woodbine Mile in Canada on September 15.

 

Trainer Craig Lewis, whose mare Warren’s Veneda finished second to Beholder in the Grade  III Adoration at Santa Anita and third to her in the Grade I Clement L. Hirsch Stakes here, watched Beholder’s Pacific Classic performance at the track Saturday.

 

Retired trainer Laura de Seroux, who conditioned the great mare Azeri for Clement Hirsch wins in 2002 and 2003 watched from her Rancho Santa Fe home.

 

Lewis was at work at his stable Sunday morning. De Seroux was part of the crowd watching American Pharoah’s workout and cool down.

 

Here’s what they had to say about Beholder:

 

Lewis: “Her race was fantastic. Scary good. I think she’s the best horse in the country right now. I don’t know how we came within a length of her at Santa Anita (Adoration) while giving her weight. I’m going to run wherever she doesn’t. I hope she goes in the (Breeders’ Cup) Classic because that gives me a better chance in the filly and mare (Distaff). If she goes in the Distaff, I might go in the Classic.”

 

DeSeroux: “That was spectacular. And it was so brilliant of Richard Mandella to pick such a great spot for her. I wanted to do something like that with Azeri but unfortunately a spot like that didn’t come up…Azeri had a similar running style to Beholder, stalk and pounce, so it would be a tough call if they ran against each other. People used to ask me about Zenyatta and Azeri and I’d just say it would have been interesting because they had totally opposite running styles.”

 

 

Big Cazanova, a horse for the Polytrack course at Del Mar, gets his first race on the new dirt main track against six rivals in Wednesday’s $80,000 Harry F. Brubaker Stakes.

 

A 6-year-old son of Giant’s Causeway, Big Cazanova was three-for-three over the Polytrack here in 2014 capped by a 3 ¼-length score in the Native Diver Handicap on November 28, penultimate day of the inaugural Bing Crosby Season.

 

Four months earlier, Big Cazanova established a Polytrack record for the mile, winning an optional claiming event in 1:34.74 under Corey Nakatani.

 

The Native Diver was the third of seven straight graded stakes races for the Peter Miller trainee, the most recent being a sixth of seven in the Grade I Eddie Read Stakes on grass here July 18.

 

The field for the one-mile Brubaker from the rail is: Safety Belt (Fernando Valdez), Big Cazanova (Victor Espinoza), Rock Me Baby (Corey Nakatani), Point Piper (Mario Gutierrez), Global View (Drayden Van Dyke), Smooth Roller (Mike Smith) and Motown Men (Tyler Baze).

 

CLOSERS – Selected workouts from 215 officially timed on dirt and 26 on turf Sunday morning: Dirt – American Pharoah (7f, 1:23.20), Stellar Wind (5f, 1:00.80), Nextdoorneighbor (5f, :59.80), Gimme Da Lute (5f, :59.20), Big Macher (5f, :58.40), Nyquist (4f, :48.40), Nashoba’s Gold (4f, :50.60); Turf – Soul Driver (5f, 1:02.00), Papacoolpapacool (5f, 1:03.80), Obviously (5f, 1:01.40), Queen of the Sand (4f, :49.60) and Istanford (4f, :50.00).

 

 

 

Jockey Standings
(Current Through Saturday, August 22, 2015 Inclusive)
Jockey	Mts	1st	2nd	3rd	Win%	Money Won
Rafael Bejarano	149	29	30	19	19%	$1,840,764
Tyler Baze	154	21	23	23	14%	$1,283,688
Joseph Talamo	136	20	11	12	15%	$1,236,588
Flavien Prat	131	18	20	20	14%	$1,558,554
Santiago Gonzalez	121	18	11	13	15%	$1,023,286
Mario Gutierrez	91	15	9	8	16%	$891,516
Kent Desormeaux	77	13	10	11	17%	$709,124
Martin Garcia	96	12	8	13	13%	$870,990
Corey Nakatani	60	11	6	4	18%	$530,776
Tiago Pereira	71	10	5	4	14%	$388,650

 

Trainer Standings
(Current Through Saturday, August 22, 2015 Inclusive)
Trainer	Sts	1st	2nd	3rd	Win%	Money Won
Jerry Hollendorfer	63	15	7	8	24%	$973,922
Doug F. O'Neill	75	13	15	8	17%	$1,000,240
Peter Miller	93	12	14	14	13%	$931,150
Philip D'Amato	59	11	8	9	19%	$820,492
Richard Baltas	53	10	6	11	19%	$526,672
John W. Sadler	39	10	2	5	26%	$468,584
Bob Baffert	43	8	5	7	19%	$690,820
Mike Puype	53	8	3	7	15%	$489,100
Robert B. Hess, Jr.	41	8	1	6	20%	$251,722
Richard E. Mandella	30	6	6	8	20%	$1,488,476

 

Winning Favorites Report
(Current Through Saturday, August 22, 2015 Inclusive)
Winning favorites	69	246	28.05%
Wining favorites on dirt	50	168	29.76%
Winning favorites on turf	19	78	24.36%
Winning odds-on favorites	12	25	48.00%
In-the-Money favorites	141	246	57.32%
In-the-Money odds-on favorites	22	25	88.00%

 

 

 

Contact: Dan Smith 858-792-4226/Hank Wesch 858-755-1141 ext. 3793