Nyquist (left) and Songbird (right)
DEL MAR JUVENILE CHAMPS GET HIGHEST VALIDATION WITH BC WINS
The two-year-olds that wowed fans at Del Mar during the summer meeting took their talents to a whole new level, actually the highest possible, winning their divisions in the Breeders’ Cup World Championships on Saturday at Keeneland in Kentucky.
The victories by Songbird in the $2 million Juvenile Fillies to open the Breeders’ Cup portion of the card, and Nyquist four races later in the Juvenile highlighted a solid day for Del Mar-connected horses and Del Mar-regular jockeys and trainers against competition assembled from around the world.
Del Mar Debutante winner Songbird stayed unbeaten through four career starts going wire-to-wire to win by 5 ¾ lengths under Mike Smith for reigning Del Mar training champion Jerry Hollendorfer.
“Once we jumped well and I was still on her I was pretty confident,” said Smith, aboard the 2-year-old daughter of Medaglia d’Oro for all four of her races, starting with a 6 ½-length maiden win here last July 26.
“We look forward to next year,” Hollendorfer said. “We don’t have any plans now, but we’ll make some.”
It was just the second victory in a Breeders' Cup race for Hall of Fame trainer Hollendorfer, whose previous triumph came with Dakota Phone in the 2010 Dirt Mile.
"He was more confident than I was," said owner Rick Porter, who races under the stable name Fox Hill Farm.
Porter, who has campaigned stars such as 2010 Horse of the Year Havre de Grace and Grade 1 winner Hard Spun, said of Hollendorfer: "Jerry has done a great job. He told me he wanted to run in this Grade 1 [the Del Mar Debutante] after her maiden, and I said, 'Jerry, I don't usually do that.' He said, 'You've got the best horse on the backside.' "
Nyquist stayed unbeaten through five starts with a half-length victory over Swipe that duplicated the order of finish in the Best Pal Stakes and Del Mar Futurity here and the Front Runner at Santa Anita. Nyquist was the co-second choice in the wagering at nearly 5-1 while Swipe was overlooked at 29-1.
Nyquist is owned by J. Paul Reddam, who claimed the owner titles for both wins and earnings at the summer meeting, and trained by four-time Del Mar training champion Doug O’Neill.
“He took a lot of abuse from handicappers for his descending Beyer Speed Figures coming into the race,” Reddam said. “I thought, ‘Is it really a criticism that you’re not winning by enough?’ ”
In winning his first four starts, Nyquist was never farther back than 1 1/2 lengths at any point of call. On Saturday, after getting bumped by Swipe at the start, Nyquist was eighth, though only about five lengths back but four to five wide under Mario Gutierrez.
“Midrace, I thought, ‘Well, they’re not machines. Even great horses every now and then don’t fire,’ ” O’Neill said. “I thought he wasn’t firing. When Mario called on him, he sure did.”
Gutierrez thought he would be closer to the pace early in the race but was hung out wide when so many horses were sent to the front by their riders.
“That’s the beauty when you ride a good horse – there’s always time to adapt,” Gutierrez said. “Relax, wait for everybody to get their positions, tried saving a little bit of ground in the backstretch; from that point on, it was wait to push the button to go home.”
And, of course, there was the emotional climax to the day with the victory by Triple Crown champion American Pharoah – the 2014 Del Mar Futurity winner who trained here over the summer – in the $5 million Classic.
“I knew this was going to be his last race, and I let him run," Espinoza said. "On the backside, the path I was in was a little deep, so I decided to move out and he accelerated a little. Turning for home, I knew I was gone."
BREEDERS’ CUP RIDING HEROS TANGLE HERE TODAY
Victor Espinoza, Mike Smith and Mario Gutierrez, fresh from Breeders’ Cup victories and with 1,871 travel miles from Lexington, Ky., behind them, have two mounts apiece on today’s eight-race card.
They’ll be competing against each other in the second where Smith has 4-5 favorite Iron Fist for trainer Jerry Hollendorfer, Espinoza 4-1 Solid Wager for Peter Miller and Gutierrez 8-1 Just Kidding for Peter Eurton.
Gutierrez concludes his day aboard Cowboy (5-1) for owner/trainer Bobby Grayson in the third. Smith and Espinoza are back for the seventh, the $200,000 Goldikova Stakes where Espinoza gets 8-5 favorite Elektrum and Smith rides 5-2 Queen of the Sand.
It’s not at all unusual, of course, for jockeys to have assignments in the East one day and West the next. The vagaries of travel can sometimes foul up commitments, but the agents for all three said that’s not the case today.
“Mario came back on Mr. (owner J. Paul) Reddam’s private plane last night, worked three horses this morning at Santa Anita and is on his way down to Del Mar,” said Gutierrez’s agent Tom Knust.
“There’s no rest for the wicked.”
WHAT’S IN A NAME – GOLDIKOVA STAKES
Today’s Goldikova Stakes honors Goldikova, the great Irish-bred mare who won the Breeders’ Cup Mile three straight times from 2008-2010 and won Eclipse Awards in the Female Turf Horse division in 2009 and 2010.
RETIRED TRAINER WALLY DOLLASE, 78, DIES
Surrounded by family, retired trainer Wallace (Wally) Dollase passed away Friday night following a lengthy illness in Kentucky at age 78.
The trainer of Eclipse Award Champions Itsallgreektome (Eclipse Male Turf Horse 1990) and Jewel Princess (Eclipse Older Filly or Mare 1996), Dollase, who was born Aug. 1, 1937, in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, was known as a consummate horseman who paid strict attention to detail while embracing a “family-first” approach to a highly successful training operation in Southern California.
“My dad passed away peacefully with his family by his side last night,” said Michelle Dollase this morning. “My mom would like to thank everyone for their kind wishes.”
After raising his family at Rancho Rio Vista Farm located northeast of San Francisco, Dollase, his wife, Cincy and children Aimee, Carrie, Craig and Michelle, moved to Southern California and, in an incredible 16-year span from 1990 to 2006, Dollase amassed 78 stakes wins that included 18 Grade I triumphs across North America.
A winner of Santa Anita’s Grade I Malibu Stakes with King of the Heap in 1996, the Grade I Santa Margarita Handicap in 1998 with Jewel Princess and the track’s Grade I Las Virgenes Stakes with A.P. Adventure in 2004, Dollase was also a two-time winner of the Grade I Travers Stakes at Saratoga, with the father-son team of Deputy Commander in 1997 and Ten Most Wanted in 2003. (His Jewel Princess also won the Grade I Breeders’ Cup Distaff, run in 1996 at Woodbine).
The Dollase family remains active in the Thoroughbred business, as his youngest child, Aimee, is an assistant in Southern California to Tom Proctor, daughter Michelle is currently training at San Luis Rey Downs, and son, Craig, has a public stable based at Los Alamitos.
Funeral arrangements are pending.
CLOSERS – Trainer Hector Palma, one away from 1,100 career wins, will saddle Ipray, 3-1 second choice in today’s nightcap … Private Zone, the marquee horse for Del Mar veteran rider Martin Pedroza, was a game second to favored Run Happy in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint. Private Zone, whom Pedroza has guided to six graded stakes wins – four of them Grade I – in the past two years, withstood a front-running duel with Holy Boss in the early going and edged ahead in the stretch before being passed in the closing yards …Four-time Del Mar riding champion Patrick Valenzuela reports he is down to 123 pounds toward a riding-weight goal of 119. Valenzuela is exercising horses for several trainers mornings while awaiting developments in his quest to be reissued a jockey’s license which has been suspended. His status is to be determined by the California Horse Racing Board.
Contact: Dan Smith 858-792-4226/Hank Wesch 858-755-1141 ext. 3793