Full Serrano © Benoit Photo
FULL SERRANO CAPS A GOOD BREEDERS’ CUP FOR LOCAL RUNNERS
The dust from this weekend’s Breeders’ Cup has clearly settled on the backstretch at Del Mar. Overnight the hustle and bustle in the barn area has been replaced by a calm and serene environment.
By the time the sun came up this morning many of the ‘domestic’ trainers and horses had boarded flights back east. The dozens of golf carts buzzing around the backstretch have been replaced by enormous horse trailers, sent to Del Mar to transport the prize equines to the airport or back up to Santa Anita.
It was a widely diverse group of winners over the past two days. Horses from back east, from overseas, and several who are based in Southern California and ran at Del Mar this past summer all found their way to the winners circle.
John Sadler trained one of the ‘local’ winners Saturday. His horse Full Serrano, runner-up to Mixto in the G1 FanDuel Pacific Classic at Del Mar, took down the contentious Dirt Mile. Sitting outside his stable this morning, Sadler was joined by his proud owners.
“Beautiful. He ate up and looks great,” said Kosta Hronis.
“Dappled and shiny,” Stephanie Hronis added. “Doesn’t look exhausted.”
This is not Sadler’s first rodeo. He’s won two other Breeders’ Cup races with Accelerate in the 2018 Classic and Flightline in the 2022 Classic, both with Hronis Racing.
“Accelerate was special,” Hronis says when asked how this one stacks up with the others. “A lot of Grade Ones. That was our first. To be part of that was a dream come true. To me, the Classic is the World Series inside the Super Bowl. It’s the race of the races. But Full Serrano, since he’s come here (to the states) has been a great horse. Loves working out. Loves being on the track. So it’s very satisfying because he’s such a pro.
“For me, the last one is always great,” Sadler contends. “Flightline was a generational horse so this one a couple years later is great also.”
It was sort of redemption after their close call in the Pacific Classic a couple of months ago. Full Serrano led every step of the way in Del Mar’s marquee, $1 million race only to get caught in the final strides.
“There’s nothing to make up, it’s horse racing,” Hronis says. “We’ve won that way, we’ve lost that way. What knocks you down might make you stronger when you get up.”
I had flashbacks to the Pacific Classic,” Stephanie remembers while watching the race. “He’s a gorgeous horse. When I see him around the barn I think he’s very enamored with himself. He’s very confident and his groom, Jorge (Chaves), takes very good care of him and has a lot of pride in him and it’s his win, too.”
As far as plans for Full Serrano in 2025, Hronis says it’s up to Sadler, as are most of the Thoroughbred decisions they make.
"I don't really get to do the shopping," Hronis said. "I just follow John around. I have the basket, and he puts the stuff in and I go to the register. That's my involvement."
“We’ll get him up to Santa Anita,” Sadler interjects. “He leaves this morning. We’ll check him out up there over the next week or so then we’ll start to map out some plans.”
As for the other horses who ran at Del Mar in the summer and returned for the Breeders’ Cup, there were a total of 25. Two made it to the winners circle, Citizen Bull in the Juvenile and Full Serrano. Five finished second, Vodka With A Twist in the Juvenile Fillies; Gaming in the Juvenile; Iron Man Cal in the Juvenile Turf; Motorious in the Turf Sprint, and Johannes in the Mile. Two more posted show finishes, Didia in the Filly and Mare Turf and Ag Bullet in the Sprint.
One of the most shocking developments of this year’s Breeders’ Cup was the lack of success by the Japanese contingent. They brought 19 horses to Del Mar and were blanked in the win column. They had one horse finish second and two finish third. They will pack up and leave Del Mar tonight.
The best news of the weekend comes from track veterinarian Brent Cassady who said he did not hear one report of any sore horses returning to their stalls after the races, with the exception of the horse that flipped in the gate prior to the Turf Sprint. Believing was said to be a little sore but otherwise fine. Cassady found it hard to remember the last time he had such a glowing report after a Breeders’ Cup.
Attendance over the two day event totaled 67,418, with 36,436 packing into the Del Mar grandstand on Saturday. Total all-sources, global common–pool handle was the third best in Breeders’ Cup history totaling $179,218,631. On track handle for the two days was $18,450,724.
Flavien Prat won the Shoemaker Award for best performance by a jockey. He didn’t get going until late when he won back-to-back races, the Classic and the Filly and Mare Turf. Ryan Moore also won two races, the Juvenile Turf and Juvenile Fillies Turf but Prat won the tiebreaker, a 10-3-1 point system for second through fourth. Prat had two third-place finishes.
The Breeders’ Cup will return to Del Mar for the fourth time in 2025
LARRY COLLMUS TO CALL ANOTHER FALL MEET AT DEL MAR
Larry Collmus has plenty of reasons for loving Del Mar and this year he can add one more.
Collmus has a full calendar. He calls the Triple Crown races, the Breeders’ Cup races as well as the brief meet at Kentucky Downs. So he logs a lot of frequent flier miles before he lands at Del Mar in the fall. But this year, with the Breeders’ Cup at Del Mar, it means one less plane to catch and one less hotel to check into as he returns to call the races for the Bing Crosby Season.
“It helps to have the Breeders’ Cup here,” Collmus says, “because of the familiarity with the announcer’s booth, the area, the whole ins and outs of Del Mar. They make things a little calmer.”
New Jersey is home for Larry, but for the most part he’s a sort of nomad during the year, calling races at different tracks or handicapping for FanDuel Racing around the country.
“Just being here puts me in a good mood,” Collmus notes. “I love the area. I’ve made so many friends here. It kind of feels like home even though I’m only here one month out of the year.”
This will be Collmus’ fifth fall season calling the races at Del Mar. His first year was at the height of Covid when regular track announcer Trevor Denman chose to stay home in Minnesota.
“It’s fantastic for the sightlines,” Collmus says of Del Mar. “At a lot of tracks you have issues with different things in the way. Here at Del Mar nothing’s in the way.”
He just finished calling his 13th Breeders’ Cup. Of all of his projects, the one with the most homework is the Breeders’ Cup.
“I have flashcards of the silks of every horse of every race,” Collmus reveals about his preparation. “They’re all in little sandwich bags for each individual race. I quiz myself three or four times a day on who every horse is. You have horses from all over the world so you have to make sure you know how to say all of their names.”
Collmus makes it sound easy but calling horse races is not for everyone. Still, after all of these years in the racing business, he gets a case of the nerves prior to calling a big race.
“I do get the butterflies for the Breeders’ Cup because the races matter so much. Championships are on the line. Horses are coming from Japan, Europe, even South Africa. There’s so much worldwide interest that you want to be on your game.”
Things will now mellow out a bit for Collmus but that is what makes the Bing Crosby meet so unique.
“The last two weeks when all the stakes are run are really fun,” Collmus contends. “One of the good things about Del Mar, in the last few years at least, a lot of horses from the east coast come in for those grass races.”
CAL-BRED STAKES HIGHLIGHT NEXT WEEKEND’S RACING AT DEL MAR
The stakes action continues next weekend at Del Mar with a pair of Cal-bred races. The fillies and mares go at in the $100,000 Betty Grable on Saturday and 3-year-olds and up clash in the $100,000 Cary Grant on Sunday.
Twelve horses have been nominated for the seven-furlong Betty Grable, run on the main track. Mr. and Mrs. Larry Williams’ Grand Slam Smile won last out in the $100,000 California Distaff at Santa Anita. She has finished in the money in all 10 of her starts, three at Del Mar. But she has never won here.
Two of her starts at the seaside oval ended in runner-up finishes, both to Repole Stables’ Pushiness, who is also nominated for the Betty Grable. The 3-year-old daughter of Kantharos hails from the Michael McCarthy barn.
Other notable nominees for next Saturday’s race is Jaime Renella’s Chismosa, runner up last summer to Sweet Azteca in the G3 Rancho Bernardo; the Carla Gaines trained Big Summer; and GMT Racing Stables’ Irish Wahine, runner-up in last month’s G3 Chillingworth at Santa Anita.
Entries for the Betty Grable will be drawn Wednesday.
Eight horses were nominated for the Cary Grant, won last year by fan favorite The Chosen Vron. William Peoples’ Big City Lights ran second that day and may take another crack at it this year.
Also on the list of nominees is None Above the Law, Del Mar’s top 3-year-old in 2021; Curlin’s Kaos winner of the Real Good Deal Stakes at Del Mar this past summer and Man O Rose, a five-time winner in 2024.
Entries for the Cary Grant will be drawn Thursday.
COOLING OUT: Show Card, the horse who flipped in the paddock prior to the running of the G3 Bayakoa Saturday and was scratched, is okay according trainer Bob Baffert. “She was on her toes and she went up and lost her footing and she laid down on the shavings. Once she sat down, that was it.”…Notable works for Sunday: Dirt – Zio Jo (4f, 47.40); Rank (5f, :58.40), and Two Rivers Over (5f, :59.40). A total of 48 horses put in official works.