By Jim Charvat

Panic Alarm

EUROPEAN INVADER MAKES U.S. DEBUT IN G3 LA JOLLA SUNDAY

Three-year-old turf runners are in the spotlight Sunday in the 83^rd running of the G3 La Jolla Handicap at Del Mar. The La Jolla’s storied past includes such winners as Relaunch, Tight Spot, Singletary, Sidney’s Candy and Smooth Like Strait. Last year, Cabo Spirit joined the list.

This year any one of the eight entries has a shot to take home the trophy in the mile and a sixteenth turf test including Hronis Racing’s Panic Alarm, who will be making his U.S. debut on the Jimmy Durante Turf Course.

“The plan has always been to bring him over for Del Mar,” trainer John Sadler says. “We put him in the Oceanside but I thought it was a little quick for him so we thought we would scratch him from the Oceanside and wait for the La Jolla. We feel he’s got some quality and we’re anxious to get him started.”

The Irish-bred won a pair of races as a 2-year-old, breaking his maiden and then winning an allowance race in Ireland but he has yet to visit the winners circle in 2023 and last out he finished far back in a small handicap at England’s Ascot.

“He didn’t run well at Royal Ascot,” Sadler says. “He’s doing fine. He’s had four works and he’s a natural distance horse.”

Henry Q is the highweight in the La Jolla at 122 pounds. The son of Blame won the $100,000 Mine That Bird at Sunland Park in February, a prep for the G3 Sunland Derby which he came back in and ran third a month later.

He shipped back east and ran in the G3 Peter Pan at Belmont Park in May, finishing a respectable third behind eventual Belmont Stakes winner Arcangelo. Trainer Doug O’Neill then sent Henry Q to Thistledown where he ran fifth in the G3 Ohio Derby.

“Those have been some tough horses he’s been running against,” O’Neill says. "He’s been shipping his last few races and here he’s able to run against his own age group from his own stall.”

The La Jolla will be Henry Q’s fourth different racetrack in his last four races, and he’s trying turf for the first time.

“I thought it was a good opportunity to try it in our own backyard,” O’Neill says. “We breezed him the last couple of weekends on the grass and he seems to enjoy it, so we’re going to see what happens.”

Leonard Powell packs a solid one-two punch with Maltese Falcon and Zalamo, the latter a French-bred who is making just his second start in the U.S. His first was a distant ninth-place finish in the $100,000 Oceanside Stakes at Del Mar.

“He got slammed out of the gate which set him a bit farther back than what we would have wanted,” Powell says. “He ran a very good last quarter of a mile and he came out of the race in excellent shape. I think the experience of the last race and the distance will help him.”

Maltese Falcon is coming off a runner-up finish to Wizard of Westwood in the $100,000 Cinema at Santa Anita in June. The son of Caravaggio is still a maiden and is shortening up from the mile and a quarter run in the Cinema and the mile and an eighth he ran the race before.

“He was supposed to run last week in a maiden but he didn’t get in,” Powell says. “The horse is ready to run. He’s doing well. He’s been progressing each start this year. I know we’re aiming high but the last time he ran second in a stakes race so I think he belongs here and I think he’ll make a good impression.”

Maltese Falcon will have the services of leading rider Juan Hernandez.

Kid Azteca could be the sleeper. The son of Sharp Azteca had a legitimate excuse for his poor showing in the Oceanside on opening day.

“He got stepped on and he pulled a hind shoe,” trainer Peter Miller says. “Not all of the way off, half of the way off which is even worse. So we’re going to put a line through the Oceanside.

“He’s doing well,” Miller continues. “It’s a wide-open race and he should run much better this time.”

The G3 La Jolla goes off as the 10^th race on the 11-race Sunday program. Approximate post time is 6:30 p.m.

Here’s the field from the rail with the jockeys and morning line odds: Smart Mo (Joe Bravo, 8-1); Agency (Mark Glatt, 4-1); Maltese Falcon (5-2); Justin’s Legacy (Hector Berrios, 12-1); Panic Alarm (Umberto Rispoli, 2-1); Kid Azteca (Assael Espinoza, 20-1); Henry Q (Antonio Fresu, 6-1), and Zalamo (Mike Smith, 8-1).

FRESU MAKES GOOD FIRST IMPRESSION AT DEL MAR

Antonio Fresu is one of the new kids in the Del Mar jockey’s room. He’s also one of the most accomplished. He’s only been in the United States for a short time and has already established himself as a reliable rider with good instincts.

He made his North American debut last September at Saratoga. Since then he’s made quite an impression everywhere he rides, at Santa Anita, at Los Alamitos and now at Del Mar, where he won his first mount of the summer meet aboard the Cal-bred, Economical in a claiming race July 22.

“It’s a beautiful place,” Fresu says of Del Mar. “The track is amazing and the facility is really good. I started really well, winning my first ride of the meet for Doug O’Neill. It was really nice to place in a couple of stakes and win with a nice 3-year-old colt.”

That 3-year-old is Raging Torrent, who won at first asking for O’Neill.

Fresu is good with horses because he’s been around them all of his life. The 31-year-old native Italian was brought up in a family of horsemen.

“I’m the fourth generation of riders,” Fresu says. “My father was a jockey in Italy; so were my uncle, my granddad and my great grandfather. They actually didn’t want me to be a jockey. They say it’s a hard life and now after a few years I have to say they were right.”

Fresu went to the racing school in Italy in Pisa and admittedly says he started a little bit late.

“My first ride I was almost 20-years-old,” he notes. “After a few years in Italy I was doing really well and they suggested I go to England. So I went to the UK for a couple of years and that’s when I started to go to Dubai.”

Fresu became one of the top riders at Meydan Racecourse in the United Emirates, home of the Dubai World Cup, winning the 2021 Dubai Golden Shaheen with Zenden.

“That’s where I met Doug O’Neill,” Fresu says. “He was asking me to come to the U.S. last year but I didn’t take the chance. But this year I did because he said he had a good friend, Tom Knust, who could be my agent. It was a good move.”

“He’s just a tremendous horseman,” O’Neill says about Fresu. “Horses just run for him. He’s got that ‘it’ factor. He’s able to reserve a horse without fighting him and then down the lane he’s very strong and horses are encouraged by him.

“Sometimes you get riders who are strong finishers but horses aren’t in sync with them and they take their run away,” O’Neill continues. “But he’s a strong finisher and horses really run for him.”

Fresu says he’s still making the adjustment to life in America.

“I think the hardest part is the transition,” Fresu says. “My life, being in Europe and Dubai, being here is very different so you need to adapt yourself. Once you adapt yourself you’re happy and you can go back to your work and do good things because I think if you don’t live well, you’re not going to work well.”

Things appear to be working very well for Fresu. Coming into Saturday, he is fourth in the Del Mar jockey standings with six wins, nine seconds and six thirds from 47 mounts and $522,330 in earnings.

“I have a passion for the horses,” Fresu says with a smile. “They are amazing animals.”

2-YEAR-OLD STAKES KICK OFF WITH CTBA SUNDAY

The first of the Del Mar summer meet’s 2-year old stakes races is set to be run Sunday. The $125,000 California Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association, or CTBA for short, is a 5 ½-furlong sprint on the dirt for juvenile fillies.

All eight of the entrants have at least one start under their belt and all have broken their maidens.

Grand Slam Smile broke her maiden at Golden Gate Fields in May, winning by four lengths and then came back and won the $100,000 Fasig Tipton Debutante at Santa Anita in June.

“She got a decent trip out of it,” trainer Steve Specht says. “Kind of stuck down inside and you never know how they’re going to get away from the gate. But she’s got speed. I don’t think she needs to be on the lead; I think she can sit off it if need be. She’s been training great.”

The daughter of Smiling Tiger has put in five works at Pleasanton since that victory, the most recent a bullet work last Saturday. Specht says in the beginning Grand Slam Smile was a bit of a challenge.

“She was a little rough to handle in the beginning,” the trainer says. “She had an attitude about her. But now she’s a piece of cake. I put her behind horses, let her get a little dirt in her face in case that happens to be the situation and she seemed to handle it okay. I think she’ll be real tough.”

Pushiness is out of the Michael McCarthy barn. She broke her maiden first time out in June at Santa Anita, going off as the heavy favorite in a seven-horse field and winning by six lengths. The daughter of Kantharos is the morning line favorite in the CTBA.

Trainer Jeff Bonde will bring three horses to the race. It’s Saul Good, Fly a Fantasy and Crazy Hot, who was a heavy favorite in her debut, a 4 ½-furlong maiden race in April. She made it easy for her backers, winning by 10 lengths.

The daughter of Goldencents was again the odds-on favorite in her second outing, the Fasig-Tipton Debutante and she finished third behind Grand Slam Smile.

“They had a bunch of gate incidents,” Bonde says of the load before the race. “The whole field had to wait about 20 minutes to run so we’re looking at it as a throw out race.”

Crazy Hot was off a step slow that day, was four-to-five wide in the turn and flattened out in the lane.

The CTBA is restricted to Cal-breds. It’s the first of back-to-back stakes on Sunday and is the ninth race on the 11-race card. Approximate post time is 6 p.m.

Here’s the field from the rail with jockeys and morning line odds: Fly a Fantasy (Mike Smith, 8-1); Grand Slam Smile (Frank Alvarado, 5/2); Pushiness (Umberto Rispoli, 8/5); Stay Quiet (Ricky Gonzalez, 20-1); It’s Saul Good (Edwin Maldonado, 20-1); Putt for Dough (Mario Gutierrez, 6-1); Crazy Hot (Geovanni Franco, 3-1), and Stealthespotlight (Ramon Vasquez, 20-1).

COOLING OUT: Trainer Steve Knapp says Bus Buzz came out of his runaway win in Friday’s $175,000 Real Good Deal in good shape. He says they will probably switch surfaces and point to the G3 Green Flash on Pacific Classic Day, September 2. It’s a ‘Win and You’re In’ for the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint…Catching-up with Spirit of Makena and stablemate American Theorem: Trainer George Papaprodromou says both are fine despite their rough trips in the G1 Bing Crosby last weekend. ‘Makena’ clipped heels on the far turn and in his effort to get his feet back under him, caused American Theorem to check and lose stride. Both finished the race, ‘Theorem’ salvaging fourth place. Papaprodromou says he has no definitive plans for where his pair of sprinters will go next…For the second day in a row Friday, all eight races were won by different trainers. Coming into Week #3 of the Del Mar summer meet 38 different trainers had won a race…Notable works for Saturday: Dirt – Moose Mitchell (5f, :58.60); Muth (5f, :59.80); Prince of Monaco (5f, :59.40); Queen of the Temple (5f, 1:02.60); Reincarnate (5f, 1:00.20), and Stilleto Boy (5f, 1:02.20). A total of 188 horses posted official workouts.

Del Mar Statistics

 Jockey Standings
(Current Through August 4, 2023 Inclusive)

Trainer Standings
(Current Through August 4, 2023 Inclusive)

Winning Favorites Report
(Current Through August 4, 2023 Inclusive)

Winning favorites -- 25 out of 86 -- 29.07%
Winning favorites on dirt -- 13 out of 48 -- 27.08%
Winning favorites on turf -- 12 out of 38 -- 31.58%
Winning odds-on favorites -- 2 out of 8 -- 25.00%
In-the-Money favorites -- 50 out of 86 -- 58.14%
In-the-Money odds-on favorites -- 4 out of 8 -- 50.00%