California Chrome worked four furlongs in :47.80 at Los Alamitos and Dortmund five furlongs in :59.20 here Sunday morning, leaving only one major work still ahead for two of the marquee runners targeting the $1 million TVG Pacific Classic on August 20.

 

California Chrome, with exercise rider Dihigi Gladney up, went out at 5:30 a.m., with sunrise still a flicker, and produced splits of :12.80, :24.80 and :36.80 en route to his half-mile time and galloped out to five furlongs in 1:01.80.

 

“Terrific,” trainer Art Sherman said  of the exercise. “He did it breezing, well in hand. He looks great and we’re right on schedule for the Pacific Classic.”

 

Dortmund, with jockey Flavien Prat up, took the Del Mar track at around 8 a.m. and worked in company with stablemate Above Board. Breaking off about four lengths behind the workmate, Dortmund closed ground around the turn and finished slightly ahead.

 

Del Mar’s clockers had splits of :12.40, :24.40,  :35.60 and :47.00 leading up to the :59.20 for five furlongs. Trainer Bob Baffert had the 4-year-old son of Big Brown galloping out seven furlongs in 1:23.40.

 

California Chrome and Dortmund finished 1-2 at the end of a stirring stretch battle in the San Diego Handicap on July 23.

 

“He went nice and I was happy with his work,” Baffert said. “The race (San Diego Handicap) moved him forward. We wanted a strong work today and we got it.”

 

Comments from the clockers’ booth were: “Looked good,” “Finished with a rush” and “Galloped out strong.”

 

California Chrome and Dortmund will each have one more work, a week from today, before the Classic. California Chrome at Los Alamitos, Dortmund here.

 

 

 

After Saturday’s fourth race, the Sorrento Stakes, Hall of Fame jockey Kent Desormeaux was the picture of frustration, the product of finishing second to Champagne Room with an ill-starred trip on Miss Southern Miss.

 

After the eighth race, Desormeaux was a picture of elation after Straight Fire romped home 10 ½ lengths ahead of eight rivals to certify the colt’s status as one of the top  2-year-olds on the grounds.

 

“Just an emotional roller coaster,” Desormeaux said Sunday morning. “Anything that could go wrong went wrong on Miss Southern Miss and (Straight Fire) was just so superior I kind of only had to hold on.”

 

Desormeaux said that, in a similar situation to her previous race, Miss Southern Miss was bumped coming out of the gate and was seconds behind in establishing a good breathing pattern and stride. They rushed up to take the lead in the first quarter of the 6 ½ furlong, Grade II $200,000 event but couldn’t hold off favored Champagne Room in the stretch and were beaten by 1 ¼ lengths.

 

“I’ve been working her for a year and she’s really, really good,” Desormeaux said. “Then to have her thrown such a curveball at the start,  and I definitely struck out on it. In hindsight, I wish I would have anchored her and made her wait, or just dropped her head and let her roll.

 

“I tried to do the ‘tweeny and let her find herself, but it was just aggravating.  I  feel  as a jockey, my hands failed, and I pride myself on that. But I don’t feel very proud about that one.

 

“I think it was an exceptional effort on her part, considering everything,” Desormeaux  said. “But it’s still a loss, which she should not have been handed.”

 

Straight Fire had finished second, beaten 5 ¼ lengths to Chasing Aces as the winner broke a 52-year-old track record for five furlongs, on July 17 in his racing debut. Saturday, the Kentucky-bred son of Dominus looked like a potential record-breaker himself covering 6 ½ furlongs in 1:14.94.

 

Straight Fire is owned by Jungle Racing LLC of sports talk show host Jim Rome and partners.

 

“He’s just a superior horse,” Desormeaux said. “That stable and Jim Rome have been in touch with the right horses (most notably Mizdirection, Shared Belief) and congratulations to them on acquiring another one.”

 

Miss Southern Miss and Straight Fire are both trained by Kent’s brother, Keith. The filly and the colt would appear to be ticketed for the two Grade I, $300,000 events for 2-year-olds at the end of the meeting, Miss Southern Miss in the Debutante (September 3) and Straight Fire the Futurity (September 5).

 

Five years ago today on Sunday, August 7, 2011, Del Mar staged “The Battle of the Exes,” the fifth and, to this point, last of match races at the track.

 

The first, Seabiscuit over Ligaroti by a nose at the end of an at-point literal stretch battle on August 12, 1938, has become known as “The Race That Put Del Mar on the Map.”

 

On August 21, 1994 came “The Showdown at the Seashore” in which Soviet Problem with Chris McCarron won easily over Mamselle Bebette and Corey Nakatani in the first 6 ½-furlong race on the Jimmy Durante Turf Course.

 

On September 8, 2002, “The Mule Duel at Del Mar” saw Black Ruby, “The best ass in the West” go 400 yards in :23.45 seconds to best arch-rival Taz by two lengths.

 

And on September 7, 2003, came “The Battle of the Sexes,” in which Patrick Valenzuela had to summon up every ounce of his considerable riding talent to get Chester’s Choice up by a nose in the last jump and edge Julie Krone on Woke Up Dreamin.

 

Which somehow triggered an idea, albeit eight years later, in the mind of Del Mar Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer Craig Dado. Why not stage a match race between Mike Smith and Chantal Sutherland, betrothed then broken up as possibly the most intriguing plot line in a reality TV series, “Jockeys,” that many racing fans followed.

 

“Chantal was doing very well, she was the face of Del Mar for two years, and we were doing things to promote her, so it seemed like a natural thing to do,” Dado said recently. “I knew Chantal would be game, but I wasn’t sure about Mike. His reaction when I talked to him about it was ‘Really?’ But then he said that ‘If you think it will help racing and Del Mar, I’ll do it.’ ”

 

A paddock press conference on the Wednesday before the race drew a full complement of San Diego TV, radio and newspaper representatives. Smith drew the inside post position on Joker Face, trained by Peter Eurton, Sutherland rode Parable for Carla Gaines.

 

Chantal, who now races under her married name of Kruse, remembers the race this way:  “It was exciting, it was fun, but it was a bad matchup. My horse didn’t want to go and he was just gone.”

 

Smith went to the front immediately and never was challenged in a 2 ¼-length victory in 1:36.55 for the mile.

 

“If it would have been a better matchup, you would have seen some race riding,” Kruse said. “The breakup was still fresh and I was still angry.”

 

“It was a fun day,” Smith said. “I won a race for a pretty good purse ($31,000). I had the quicker horse and the inside post. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little nervous about it, but I’d ridden a lot of match races so I had that advantage over her too.”

 

Will it be the last match race at Del Mar?

 

“I wouldn’t want to do a match race just for the sake of doing one,” Dado said. “But if something comes up that would warrant it, why not?”

 

 

CLOSERS – Trainer Peter Eurton said Champagne Room came out of the Sorrento in good order and was Debutante bound if all goes well. Trainer Richard Baltas said the same for La Jolla Handicap winner and Del Mar Derby-bound Free Rose … Four-time defending Del Mar riding champion Rafael Bejarano made the most of an out-of-town assignment Saturday, riding Cupid for trainer Bob Baffert to a wire-to-wire victory in the $750,000 West Virginia Derby at Charlestown, W. Va… Mike Smith finished fourth on Effinex in the $1.25 million Whitney Stakes at Saratoga as Frosted powered to an impressive victory … Selected works from 204 officially timed on the main track and 37 on the turf course Sunday morning: Dirt – Mrazek (4f, :50.60), Dortmund (5f, :59.20), Luminance (5f, :59.80), Infobedad (6f, 1:13.80) and Masochistic (6f, 1:12.20); Turf – Calculator (4f, 4f, :51.40), Mokat (4f, :48.20), Power Foot (4f, :50.00), Flamboyant (5f, 1:01.60), Nancy From Nairobi (5f, 1:01.20), Obviously (5f, 1:01.60) and Stays In Vegas (5f, 1:02.40).

 

 

 

(Current Through Saturday, August 6, 2016 Inclusive)

Jockey	Mts	1st	2nd	3rd	Win%	In-money%	Money Won
Flavien Prat	94	18	14	9	19%	44%	$1,106,425
Santiago Gonzalez	93	13	16	13	14%	45%	$666,779
Tyler Baze	92	10	14	17	11%	45%	$700,043
Kent Desormeaux	70	10	14	11	14%	50%	$718,830
Rafael Bejarano	63	9	11	13	14%	52%	$689,391
Victor Espinoza	33	9	5	4	27%	55%	$724,058
Mario Gutierrez	47	9	5	4	19%	38%	$549,827
Stewart Elliott	49	7	2	2	14%	22%	$254,430
Norberto Arroyo, Jr.	36	6	6	5	17%	47%	$262,000
Joseph Talamo	62	6	4	9	10%	31%	$454,639

(Current Through Saturday, August 6, 2016 Inclusive)

Trainer	Sts	1st	2nd	3rd	Win%	In-money%	Money Won
Philip D'Amato	44	8	6	8	18%	50%	$660,456
John W. Sadler	31	8	5	5	26%	58%	$570,630
Bob Baffert	31	7	6	3	23%	52%	$591,335
Mark Glatt	21	7	3	4	33%	67%	$223,765
Peter Miller	44	6	5	7	14%	41%	$345,165
Richard Baltas	25	6	4	5	24%	60%	$389,421
Doug F. O'Neill	61	5	7	8	8%	33%	$326,215
Jerry Hollendorfer	32	4	6	2	13%	38%	$294,628
Michael Machowsky	12	4	0	1	33%	42%	$134,500
Peter Eurton	24	3	6	0	13%	38%	$290,441

 

 

(Current Through Saturday, August 6, 2016 Inclusive)

Winning favorites -- 52 out of 151 -- 34.44%

Winning favorites on dirt -- 38 out of 99 -- 38.38%

Winning favorites on turf -- 14 out of 52 -- 26.92%

Winning odds-on favorites -- 10 out of 20 -- 50.00%

In-the-Money favorites -- 109 out of 151 -- 72.19%

In-the-Money odds-on favorites -- 16 out of 20 -- 80.00%

 

 

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