Hronis, Espinoza & Sadler © Benoit Photo

ACCELERATE CONNECTIONS CELEBRATE QUIETLY, GET TO WORK EARLY

Accelerate’s victory over Arrogate in Saturday’s $300,000 TVG San Diego Handicap – the biggest upset in Del Mar history and one of the biggest in racing annals – triggered a muted celebration that evening.

“Pretty routine, went to Sbicca’s downtown, for an early dinner,” Sadler said. “We knew we had a busy next morning ahead and here we are.”

It was 6:30 a.m. and Sadler, along with Kosta Hronis – who, with brother Pete, heads Hronis Racing LLC, an extensive stable that counts Accelerate and Stellar Wind in its membership – were in the grandstand to observe Stellar Wind’s final work for a title defense in the $300,000 Grade I Clement L. Hirsch Stakes on Sunday, July 30.

Accelerate stunned the racing world with an eight-and-a-half length San Diego victory, at odds of nearly 8-1 while World No. 1 Arrogate, sent off at 1-20, came in fourth. Next Sunday, the circumstances between Sadler and Arrogate conditioner Bob Baffert figure to be reversed without the odds being so extreme.

Stellar Wind pulled off a 9-2 upset of 1-to-10 Beholder in the 2016 Hirsch and will be favored over Baffert’s Vale Dori.

“Accelerate ran great and we’re thrilled,” Sadler said. “At first glance he looks good this morning.”

Accelerate is now 2-0 against Arrogate. In the debut for both on April 17 of last year at Los Alamitos, Accelerate finished second, three-quarters of a length behind Westbrook and a neck ahead of Arrogate.

Might there be a rematch in the $1 million TVG Pacific Classic on August 19? “We haven’t even begun to think about that,” Sadler said.

Moving right along…

Stellar Wind stepped out on the track at 6:30 a.m. as planned and worked five furlongs under exercise rider Jose Contreras. Del Mar clockers timed the Virginia-bred daughter of Curlin in :59.60 for five furlongs, two ticks faster than Sadler had while squinting into the glare of the morning sun.

The three-furlong split was :35.80 with a gallop out to six furlongs in 1:13 flat.

“She started two lengths behind her workmate, edged ahead at the wire and pulled further clear on the gallop out,” said clocker Toby Turrell.

“It was good,” Sadler said. “We were looking for about a minute and she was right on it. She’s had plenty of time to train before here, so she’s ready to go.”

BAFFERT TAKES THE HIT AND PLANS TO STAY THE COURSE

Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert didn’t have any “aha” moments or overnight revelations to explain Arrogate’s clunker of a performance in the $300,000 TVG San Diego Handicap.

So, Sunday morning, Baffert opted to let the mystery be and look ahead regarding the world’s best horse who was fourth best in the San Diego.

“He’s fine,” Baffert said from behind the desk in his stable office. “He didn’t really put out that much. We checked him over (physically) and he looks good. He got a lot of dirt in his eyes and mouth.”

Obviously, the race didn’t go as planned. Arrogate was never better positioned than the fourth he finished in a five-horse field. He was never closer than 4 ½ lengths from the lead for the first three-quarters of a mile, 11 ½ in arrears at the top of the stretch and 15 ¼ behind John Sadler-trained Accelerate at the finish.

“They got away from him, he made a little run but then he was just flat,” Baffert said. “This track, you have to be up close you can’t be too far back.”

Baffert isn’t ruling out the possibility of trainer error, but isn’t about to beat himself up over it.

“You go back and look. I prepped him pretty much like usual but I came into this race thinking I really didn’t have to do that much with him,” Baffert said. “I didn’t want him to have to run that hard, going short (1 1/16 miles).

“We’ll just go on with him. As long as he’s working well and nothing comes up, we’re going in the Pacific Classic. I wanted to give him a race here, thinking it would be a great workout for him, but the Pacific Classic is the main goal.

“They were ready for me. John (Sadler) did a great job with his horse. It’s disappointing, but Arrogate is OK and that’s all that matters. He’ll be ready next time.”

SADLER TO SEND TWO TO POST IN WEDNESDAY’S COUGAR II

Week One of the meeting ended pretty well for stakes horses from the John Sadler barn and Hronis LLC ownership with Accelerate’s upset of Arrogate.

Week Two shows great potential from the start as Sadler and his major clients are scheduled to send out Infobedad and Hard Aces in a field of seven for Wednesday’s featured Grade III $100,000 Cougar II Handicap.

“Hard Aces won it last year, so he’s back to defend and Infobedad is kind of a distance specialist,” Sadler said Sunday morning.

The Cougar II is a marathon 1 ½ miles on the main track. Hard Aces covered the distance in 2:30.40 last year, leading wire-to-wire under Santiago Gonzalez in posting a half-length victory over Quick Casablanca.

Hard Aces, a seven-year-old son of Hard Spun, has been a fixture at the graded stakes level on the Southern California circuit for the past three years and accumulated earnings of more than $1.2 million from 41 career starts.

The field, from the rail: : Infobedad (Tyler Baze), Curlin Road (Flavien Prat), 2015 Cougar II winner Big John B (Rafael Bejarano), French Getaway (Kent Desormeaux), Noble Nick (William Antongeorgi III), Hard Aces (Santiago Gonzalez) and Giant Influence (Jamie Theriot).

BARRETTS PADDOCK SALE SCHEDULED WEDNESDAY

The sixth annual Barretts Paddock Sale at Del Mar of race-ready horses will be held Wednesday approximately 30 minutes after the last race on the program.

The catalog, available on line, lists 17 horses of racing age and 25 two-year-olds that will go into the sales ring. Among the former group are stakes winner Aristocratic and Grade III winner Home Run Kitten`. Among the Sires to 2-year-olds are Animal Kingdom, Fort Larned, Sky Mesa, Smiling Tiger, Uncle Mo and Unusual Heat.

A training preview will be conducted on Monday immediately after regular workouts end at 10 a.m.  

CLOSERS – Chantal Sutherland and David Flores notched initial victories of the meeting in the first two races on Saturday. Sutherland guided Giro Candito ($9.00), the horse that provided her 1,000^th career win in May, home in the first. Flores, making a Southern California riding comeback at 49 after being away since 2014, won with Iron Rob ($21.80) in the second. The Sutherland-Flores daily double paid $21.80 … Selected works from 195 on dirt and 20 on turf officially timed Sunday morning: Dirt – Gormley (5f, 1:03.00), Majestic Heat (5f, 1:00), Stellar Wind (:59.60), Stormin Monarcho (6f, 1:12.60); Turf – A Red Tie Day (5f, 1:03.40).

DEL MAR STATISTICS 

Jockey Standings

(Current Through Saturday, July 22, 2017 Inclusive)

Trainer Standings

(Current Through Saturday, July 22, 2017 Inclusive)

Winning Favorites Report

(Current Through Saturday, July 22, 2017 Inclusive)

Winning favorites -- 8 out of 36 -- 22.22%

Winning favorites on dirt -- 7 out of 23 -- 30.43%

Winning favorites on turf -- 1 out of 13 -- 7.69%

Winning odds-on favorites -- 0 out of 4 -- 0.00%

In-the-Money favorites -- 19 out of 36 -- 52.78%

In-the-Money odds-on favorites -- 3 out of 4 -- 75.00%