Eda © Benoit Photo
JUVENILES IN SPOTLIGHT FOR ARNAZ, HOPE WEEKEND STAKES
Two-year-olds of promise will be on display in both the featured events on the second weekend as the Bing Crosby Season resumes after a rousing start with Del Mar hosting its second Breeders’ Cup World Championships.
Fillies will take center stage on Saturday in the $100,000 Desi Arnaz stakes at 6 ½ furlongs. Colts step up in Sunday’s Grade III, $100,000 Bob Hope at seven furlongs. Both are on the main track.
If it’s a 2-year-old division stakes race at Del Mar, Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert usually figures prominently. And the upcoming events are no exception. Baffert has two of the five entrants in the Arnaz – Under the Stars and Eda – and three of five for the Hope.
But with trainer Walther Solis indicating this morning that Rock N Rye would be scratched from the Hope in favor of a stakes for California breds later on, Sunday’s feature could boil down to Baffert’s Messier, Kamui and Winning Map against fellow Hall of Famer Richard Mandella’s Forbidden Kingdom.
None of the stakes entrants have more than five starts or two wins on their records. But they all have pedigrees or have shown potential in training or racing to merit starts in events with six-figure purses.
Eda, the post-time favorite for the Arnaz, was second in the Sorrento Stakes during the summer meeting and went off as the 6/5 favorite in the Grade I, $300,000 Del Mar Futurity. Caught up in an early speed duel, Eda wound up a well-beaten fifth. The $550,000 2-year-old in-training purchase in March by the Baoma Corporation rebounded to win the Anoakia Stakes at Santa Anita last month.
John Shirreffs-trained Lady T was second in the Anaokia, beaten 2 ¼ lengths, making up some ground late after being shuffled back at the start. She’s back Saturday.
“She’s doing well, she ran well last time and there’s no reason she wouldn’t again this time,” Shirreffs said.
The field for Saturday’s Desi Arnaz from the rail with jockeys and morning line odds in parentheses: Lady T (Victor Espinoza, 7/2); Endless Thirst (Tyler Baze, 30-1); Under the Stars (Abel Cedillo, 5/2); Tonito’s (Mario Gutierrez, 8-1) and Eda (Flavien Prat, 3/5).
In Sunday’s Bob Hope, Baffert’s trio drew the three inside posts and were the top three choices on oddsmaker Jon White’s morning line.
The field from the rail with jockeys and morning line odds in parenthesis: Messier (Prat, 8/5); Kamui (Cedillo, 5/2); Winning Map (Mike Smith, 7/5); Rock N Rye (Umberto Rispoli, 15-1), and Forbidden Kingdom (Juan Hernandez, 9/2).
ON THRESHHOLD OF A MILESTONE, FREY AIMS TO CROSS OVER SOON
Jockey Kyle Frey enters today’s program with 998 wins from 5,903 career starts according to Equibase statistics. He’s scheduled aboard three mounts in the eight-race program and is booked for three more on Saturday and six on Sunday.
The 29-year-old from Tracy, CA, said he has been aware of his proximity to the milestone 1,000th victory for “a week or two,” but is approaching it philosophically.
“I embrace it, but I’m not thinking about it or paying attention to it that much,” Frey said. “I’ve noticed that sometimes when guys near a milestone they slow down – I don’t if it’s because they’re too aware or nervous or what. I’m not nervous, I’m just trying to go out and do my best to win every race.”
Frey has 157 wins from 759 mounts with purse earnings of $4.1 million and ranks 50th among jockeys nationally for money won this year. He came to the summer meeting with plans to ride a few days at Del Mar and then return to Golden Gate Fields in San Francisco, where he was among the top riders.
He won two races the second day of the local meeting, then the Fleet Treat Stakes on I’m So Anna for trainer Steve Sherman on the second weekend and tabled the notion of returning to Northern California. He notched 14 wins from 145 mounts with purse earnings of nearly $1 million and finished eighth in the rider standings for the 31-day session, a breakthrough time in what has become the best season of his career, topping $4 million in purse earnings for the first time since 2011.
“That (summer meeting) meant everything,” Frey said. “I owe it to the trainers who gave me a chance on good horses. I was able to execute to their plans early and things worked out well.”
With 12 mounts over the next three days, Frey estimated chances are “pretty good” he’ll be able to put 1,000 wins in the rearview mirror.
“Anytime you're in a race, you’ve got a chance,” Frey said.
LOUD MOUTH, MIDCOURT EYE REPEAT SUCCESS IN UPCOMING STAKES
Nominations closed Thursday at midnight for the Native Diver Stakes on Saturday, November 20, and the Cary Grant Stakes on Sunday, November 21. The Grade III, $100,000 Native Diver closed with 11 nominations, the $100,000 Cary Grant also attracted 11.
Midcourt, the 2019 winner and 2020 runner-up in the Native Diver was placed in nomination by trainer John Shirreffs for the C R K Stable of Lee and Susan Searing. A 6-year-old gelded son of Midnight Lute, Midcourt missed repeating in the 1 1/8-mile Native Diver a year ago by a length in a duel with Extra Hope.
Midcourt was second in the San Diego Handicap and third in the Pacific Classic during the recent summer meeting.
Loud Mouth, a 5-year-old son of Tale of the Cat trained by Steve Knapp for Thomsen Racing, rallied wide for a three-quarter length victory in the 2020 running of the seven-furlong Cary Grant. It is the only victory in six career starts at Del Mar for the career earner of $375,865.
CLOSERS -- Edgeway, second to CeCe in the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint, was withdrawn from the Keeneland November breeding stock sale on Wednesday and will go back in training for John Sadler and owners Hronis Racing. Edgeway won the Rancho Bernardo Handicap in August … Apprentice status for jockey Jessica Pyfer ends after Saturday’s program.