SPEAKER’S CORNER BRINGS SERIOUS SPEED TO G2 PAT O’BRIEN           

There’s a new shooter in California this weekend and he’s packing some impressive numbers for Saturday’s G2 Pat O’Brien at Del Mar, a Breeders’ Cup Challenge race for the Dirt Mile to be run at Keeneland November 5.

Speaker’s Corner has gone up against the likes of Flightline, Life Is Good and Hot Rod Charlie and always gives a good account of himself. Amy Mullin, assistant trainer for Bill Mott, says they arrived Tuesday.

“He shipped in great,” Mullin says. “He paddock schooled today (Thursday) and galloped yesterday and today and he’s been going well.”

The son of Street Sense began the year with three straight wins, starting with the G3 Fred Hooper at Gulfstream Park and followed by the G2 Gulfstream Park Mile, which he won by five lengths. He then shipped up to New York and took the seven furlong G1 Carter at Aqueduct by four and a half lengths. The Pat O’Brien is run at the same distance.

Buoyed by the success, trainer Bill Mott stayed in Grade 1 company and went toe-to-toe with Flightline in the G1 Metropolitan Mile at Belmont Park. He finished third behind the favorite and Happy Saver. Not to be deterred, Mott brought Speaker’s Corner back in the G2 John Nerud only to catch another Horse of the Year candidate in Life Is Good.

Speaker’s Corner actually hung with the favorite until the two reached the top of the lane and Life is Good shifted into another gear, leaving Speaker’s Corner in his wake. He did, however, hold off Repo Rocks for second place. The John Nerud was also seven furlongs.

“He’s very good on the ground and very easy to be around, for the most part,” Mullin says, “but he is always ready to go on the track.”

Now Mott has shipped his speedball out west seeking the Breeders’ Cup invitation and more black type on the resume. It won’t come easy.

American Theorem, a son of American Pharoah, comes into the race off back-to-back graded stakes victories, the G2 Triple Bend at Santa Anita in May and the G1 Bing Crosby at Del Mar last month.

There is a former winner of the Pat O’Brien in the race. C Z Rocket won it in 2020 when he defeated the likes of Flagstaff and Law Abidin Citizen. The now 8-year-old son of City Zip would go on to run second to Whitmore in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint that year.

C Z Rocket has run twice against allowance company this year and is coming off a smart win at Del Mar on opening weekend.

“He’s doing very well,” trainer Peter Miller says. “He’s going to need to work out a trip from the rail, that’s the key. Let’s see if the old man’s got a few more good ones left in him.”

C Z Rocket had good form in 2021, finishing in the money in six of his seven races, winning $620,000 and avenging the loss to Whitmore in the G3 Count Fleet at Oaklawn Park. Miller brought C Z Rocket back to Del Mar to defend his title in last year’s edition of the Pat O’Brien and he ran second to Ginobili.

“He’s probably lost a step,” Miller concedes, “but if it’s only one then we’re okay. If it’s two or three we might be in trouble.

Miller also will run Get Her Number, runner-up last out in the G1 Bing Crosby.

“He’s coming up the right way,” Miller says. “He’s a younger horse, he’s half the age of C Z. Getting better and we think he has a big chance on Saturday.”

Here’s the field for the G2 Pat O’Brien from the rail with jockeys: C Z Rocket (Umberto Rispoli); Principe Carlo (Victor Espinoza); Restrainedvengence (Tiago Pereira); American Theorem (Joe Bravo); Get Her Number (Ramon Vazquez); The Chosen Vron (Hector Berrios); Laurel River (Juan Hernandez); Speaker’s Corner (Mike Smith); Defunded (Abel Cedillo), and Senor Buscador (Edwin Maldonado).

SECOND BEST WILL HAVE TO DO IN THE DEL MAR JOCKEY STANDINGS        

You never want to tell any jockey he’s running for second place. The competitive nature of the riders will not allow them to accept such an assertion. But in the case of most jockeys at Del Mar this summer, they may all be playing for second place in the jockey standings.

For instance, Joe Bravo is having a very good meet. He’s won 14 races and has compiled $965,576 in earnings. And yet, he trails leading rider, Juan Hernandez, by 21 wins.

Hernandez is having a remarkable meet with 35 victories and over $2.2 million in earnings so far. His numbers appear to be out of reach with three weeks left of racing. However, Bravo is just five victories out of second place in the rider standings, currently held by Umberto Rispoli and one behind Ramon Vazquez in third.

So it comes as no surprise Bravo is enthusiastic for the remainder of the meet.

“Anytime you walk around a corner you can see a Grade 1 caliber stakes horse sitting in the barn,” Bravo says, “and that’s what we’re all chasing.”

He got one for this weekend. Bravo will ride American Theorem, winner of the G1 Bing Crosby, in the G2 Pat O’Brien Saturday.

“I’ve been in the game one or two days (he first rode in 1988) and you kind of look for the big races and we have a lot of them here in California,” he says.

The trainer standings continue to be a logjam at the top. Phil D’Amato leads with 13 wins out of 85 starts, three of them stakes victories. He’s compiled earnings of $1,517,790. Bob Baffert is next with 12 wins followed by Peter Miller, Doug O’Neill and George Papaprodromou with 10 each, all within reach of the frontrunner.

The partnership of Pegram, Watson and Weitman continues to lead among the owners with six victories. Hronis Racing is next with five.

THE MEET BY NUMBERS: FIELD SIZES CONTINUE TO IMPRESS

Field sizes are up, “Ship & Win” numbers are up, the number of races is up. All good signs for Del Mar and racing secretary David Jerkens as we embark on week six of the summer meet.

“We’re very happy with the product,” Jerkens says. “We haven’t skipped a beat yet which is a testament to the support we’ve been receiving.”

Field sizes overall are at 9.20 after 19-days of racing, which included 180 races and 1,656 horses. With two big weekends still to come, Labor Day weekend and the TVG Pacific Classic and then closing weekend with the Del Mar Futurity, the chances field sizes stay above nine appear very good.

“Knock on wood, the undercard for the Pacific Classic should do well,” Jerkens says. “As we get to the end of the meet, as we’ve experienced, you’ll see a little bit more demand. If you look at past history we’ve gotten through the period that shows a little bit of a slowdown and typically the end of the meet, the last opportunity to run at Del Mar, we see an influx of entries. So hopefully, fingers crossed, that’ll be the same case this year.”

Finishing the year with field sizes exceeding nine hasn’t happened at Del Mar in a long time.

“We’ve been around 8.8, which is a big number compared to the rest of the industry,” said Jerkens. “8.5 - that’s kind of the standard. My goal has always been eight and a half.”

Last year field sizes at this time were 8.54.

Another indicator of a healthy horse population is an increase in the number of races run and so far there have been 10 more races run at Del Mar compared to last year at this time. Five on the turf and five on the dirt.

“Ship & Win” numbers are on pace to set records for the program, used to entice out-of-town operations to ship their horses to Del Mar, with bonuses for horses starting for the first time at Del Mar. 169 horses have qualified for “S&W,” that’s compared to the 134 qualifiers from a year ago. 25 of those horses have won.

“We’ve had a nice influx from out-of-state,” Jerkens says. “Typically by week six a lot of the “Ship & Win” horses have already started but you may see a newer influx of horses for the stakes races and you may see some who couldn’t find a race earlier in the meet. We can still expect to be over 200.”

Another nice surprise this year has been the success of the Maiden Dirt Bonus Program, meant to encourage trainers with bonus money. To date, 71 maidens have been awarded the bonus money and 10 have won.

“We’re trying to push a purse of $100,000 in any maiden dirt allowance race,” Jerkens says, “and we’ve added the bonus to maiden $62-five claimer and above. It’s just another tool that trainers can utilize to try to build up their inventory. The goal is to have more young horses in the population that trickles into all different categories. It’s hard to compare the impact but we are seeing field size increases in maiden dirt races that’s definitely due to the program”

1,415 horses have made at least one start at the meet that concludes on September 11.

COOLING OUT: Today is the deadline for nominations for the $1 million TVG Pacific Classic…A GoFundMe page has been set up to raise money for surgery expenses incurred by Cost of Freedom, a 19-year old retiree who earned over a million dollars during his racing career. He was rescued and retired several years ago by Del Mar head clocker John Malone and resides at a farm in Temecula. He suffered a bout of colic recently and had to undergo surgery. If you’d like to help out, go to GoFundMe / Cost of Freedom’s Life Saving Surgery…Notable works for Thursday: Dirt – Bye Bye Bertie (4f, :47.80); Sheza Girly Girl (4f, :49.80); and Wicked Trick (4f, :49.80). Turf – Leggs Galore (1:02.40); Red King (5f, 1:02.80), and Tizamagician (7f, 1:29.40). A total of 87 horses put in official works on the dirt, 19 on the turf.

Del Mar Statistics

Jockey Standings
(Current Through Sunday, August 21, 2022 Inclusive)

Trainer Standings
(Current Through Sunday, August 21, 2022 Inclusive)

Winning Favorites Report
(Current Through Sunday, August 21, 2022 Inclusive)

Winning favorites -- 67 out of 180 -- 37.22%
Winning favorites on dirt -- 40 out of   100 -- 40.00%
Winning favorites on turf -- 27 out of 80 -- 33.75%
Winning odds-on favorites -- 13 out of 30 -- 43.33%
In-the-Money favorites -- 139 out of 180 -- 77.22%
In-the-Money odds-on favorites -- 26 out of 30 -- 86.67%