Arrogate © Del Mar Thoroughbred Club

 

 

Arrogate, the top-rated thoroughbred in the world, made the journey from Santa Anita to Del Mar on Sunday, a day earlier than expected, and is in place for projected starts in the $200,000 TVG San Diego Handicap Saturday and the $1 million TVG Pacific Classic on Saturday, August 19.

 

The Del Mar Thoroughbred Club’s 78th Summer Season opens Wednesday and continues through Labor Day, Monday, September 4.

 

Arrogate was loaded into a van at Santa Anita at around 2 a.m. Sunday. The approximately 130-mile trip down freeways to Del Mar took around two hours, said Dana Barnes, assistant to Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert.

 

Arrogate was soon ensconced in a stall partway down the shedrow only a few steps from Baffert’s office. Coincidentally it is the same space occupied by Triple Crown champion American Pharoah two summers ago. A place for equine royalty. “It’s Arrogate’s stall,” said Baffert assistant Jim Barnes. “The same one he had here last year.”

 

Arrogate overcame a slow start to post a 1 ¾-length victory over two other rivals here on August 4 of 2016, a warm-up for a victory three weeks later in the Travers Stakes at Saratoga.

 

Arrogate will enter Saturday’s Grade II TVG San Diego Handicap on a seven-race winning streak – his only loss came in his debut in April of last year -- and earnings of $17,084,600. The last three victories have been notched in the $6 million Breeders’ Cup Classic, $12 million Pegasus World Cup and $!0 million Emirates World Cup. The march through the multi-million dollar races made Arrogate, owned by Juddmonte Farms, the richest earner in North American history.

 

A series of workouts in which the 4-year-old son of Unbridled’s Song appeared to be holding his superior form were capped Saturday when he went six furlongs in 1:11 flat. Arrogate jogged around the Del Mar track Monday morning and is not scheduled to do anything more strenuous than that before the race.

 

Entries for the San Diego will be finalized and post positions drawn on Wednesday morning. Racing officials project a field of around five from the 14 nominees. The most likely, in alphabetical order, are: Accelerate for trainer John Sadler, Arrogate and possibly one more from Baffert’s power-laden stable, Dalmore (trainer J. Keith Desormeaux), Donworth (Doug O’Neill), and Win The Space (George Papaprodromou).

 

 

 

The Jimmy Durante Turf Course, widened to be able to accommodate 14 runners in 2014, figures to have that many for the 72nd running of the traditional opening-day featured Oceanside Stakes on Wednesday.

 

A field of 14 was drawn on Saturday with two more on the also eligible list for the $100,000, one-mile turf run for 3-year-olds which goes as the eighth on a 10-race program that starts at 2 p.m.

 

Trainer Peter Miller, who notched his first Oceanside victory a year ago with Monster Bea for owner Gary Barber, will try for a second straight when he sends out Arms Runner and Allaboutmike for Rockingham Ranch. Arms Runner, a Florida-bred son of Overdriven, is unbeaten in two career starts and will be tried on grass for the first time. Allaboutmike, a Kentucky-bred son of Zensational, won his last two sprinting on the turf at Santa Anita and is 2-for?6 in his career. A turf win in February at Gulfstream Park to begin his 2017 campaign was taken away by disqualification and the gelding was relegated to fourth.

 

The field from the rail: Arms Runner (Norberto Arroyo, Jr., 3-1), Bird Is the Word (Gary Stevens, 5-1), Vending Machine (Rafael Bejarano, 10-1), Bowie’s Hero (Tiago Pereira, 5-2), Pioneer Lad (Tyler Baze, 15-1), Rockin Rudy (Mario Gutierrez, 20-1), Allaboutmike (Edwin Maldonado, 15-1), Lucky Bode (William Antongeorgi III 30-1), Placido (Flavien Prat, 8-1), Grecian Fire (Joe Talamo 20-1), Caribou Club (Drayden Van Dyke, 20-1), Fortune of War (Corey Nakatani, 20-1), Monster Man (Santiago Gonzalez, 15-1), My Man Chuckles (Kyle Frey, 30-1). Also eligible: Reign On (Evin Roman, 20-1), Harbor Master (Victor Espinoza, 20-1).

 

 

 

Flavien Prat, 24, and apprentice Evin Roman, 19, can be expected to resume a rivalry that ended in a tie for the riding title of the Santa Anita Spring-Summer meeting during Del Mar’s 78^th summer racing season when it starts Wednesday.

 

Prat, who solidified his position among the top riders in Southern California with a co-riding title at the Del Mar 2016 summer season, his first on the Southern California circuit, needed two wins on the July 4 closing day at Santa Anita to catch Roman, with 41 each. Roman (pronounced Row-MAHN), a native of Puerto Rico, became only the second apprentice to win a Santa Anita riding title and the first since Gordon Glisson in 1949.

 

Carlsbad resident Peter Miller won the Santa Anita spring-summer training title with 36 wins from 132 starters. Phil D’Amato and Richard Baltas tied for second with 25 wins each from136 and 117 starters, respectively. Miller, winner of the Del Mar training title in 2012 and co-titleist in 2014, finished second to Phil D’Amato at the 2016 summer meeting and was a runaway winner of the Bing Crosby meeting last fall.

 

Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert displayed his usual strength at the elite levels of competition by notching nine stakes victories at Santa Anita.

 

Rafael Bejarano notched seven stakes wins, two more than Prat and Mike Smith. Veterans Gary Stevens, Norberto Arroyo, Jr., and Joe Talamo had four each.

 

Roman continued his record-setting ways at the eight-day Los Alamitos meeting which concluded on Sunday. Roman recorded 13 wins, eight more than runner-up Mario Gutierrez and one more than Drayden Van Dyke posted for an eight-day meeting at Los Al in 2014.

 

Four-time Del Mar training champion Doug O’Neill took the Los Alamitos training title with six victories, two more than Bob Baffert.

 

 

 

The Grade I races that determine the meet champions in the 2-year-old divisions won’t be run until the last three days of the meeting in September. But the preliminary paperwork has been done with 195 fillies nominated to the Del Mar Debutante on September 2 and 210 colts nominated for the Del Mar Futurity on Closing Day, September 4.

 

Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert, who has won the Debutante seven times and the Futurity 13, had the most nominees with 24 for the Debutante and 36 for the Futurity. Richard Baltas (19), Jerry Hollendorfer (13) and Peter Miller (11) followed Baffert in Debutante nominees. Miller’s group includes Surrender Now, recent winner of the Landaluce Stakes at Santa Anita.

 

Baffert’s fellow Hall of Fame member Hollendorfer has 20 nominated to the Futurity with Doug O’Neill placing 15 and Miller 12 in nomination. Run Away, recent winner of the Santa Anita Juvenile for owner Kaleem Shah, is one of seven Futurity nominees for trainer Simon Callaghan.

 

Among Baffert’s bunch is Zulfikhar, a $750,000 purchase at the Fasig-Tipton sale in March at Gulfstream Park and an impressive debut winner on July 7 at Los Alamitos. Zulfikhar is a possibility for the Grade II $200,000 Best Pal Stakes on August 12.

 

 

CLOSERS – Last Friday there were an estimated 300 horses stabled at Del Mar. Monday morning, the number was up to around 1,300, according to Racing Secretary David Jerkens, with expectations of a peak of 1,900 … For the first time in many years, there will be no double-day draws conducted by the racing office. The schedule: On Friday, entries will close and fields will be drawn for the following Wednesday card; after that, it’s Saturday for Thursday, Sunday for Friday, Wednesday for Saturday and Thursday for Sunday. “The advantage of drawing two days at the same time is that, if there’s a good flow of entries, you can move races around to suit both cards,” Jerkens said. “We felt this year, given the horse population and the recent Santa Anita experience (two days were canceled) it was best to take it one day at a time … Royal F J is entered in Thursday’s first race for what will be the 100^th career start for the 10-year-old gelded son of Royal Academy … Selected works from 57 officially timed on the main track and 20 on the turf course Monday: Dirt – Majestic Heat (4f, :48.00), Pee Wee Reese (4f, :48.80), Run Away (4f, :48.40), The Lieutenant (5f, :59.00); Turf – Flamboyant (4f, :49.40 for Wickerr Stakes, July 23), Noted and Quoted (5f, 1:02.20 for San Clemente, July 23), He Will (6f, 1:16.80 for California Dreamin’, July 29), Sircat Sally (6f, 1:16.80 for San Clemente), Offshore (6f, 1:19.40 for La Jolla, August 6 and, Responsibleforlove (6f, 1:19.00 for CTT and TOC, August 16) … Weights have been released for the opening-weekend stakes, the $200,000 Grade II TVG San Diego Handicap and the $200,000 San Clemente Handicap. Arrogate (126) is high-weighted for the San Diego and four other Bob Baffert nominated runners follow in order: Mor Spirit (122), Collected (121), Cupid (121) and Cat Burgler (118). Trainer Jerry Hollendorfer’s Sircat Sally (125) and It Tiz Well (122) are the top weights for the San Clemente with five other runners weighted in the 120-121 range.    

 

 

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