It’s here today, gone tomorrow (or Saturday) for five jockeys who are among a dozen Southern California-based riders that have assignments in Breeders’ Cup races at Keeneland in Lexington on the weekend.

 

Joe Talamo, James Graham and Martin Pedroza will ride here today, then head for Kentucky. Rafael Bejarano and Alex Solis have Del Mar calls today and Friday before they journey to Lexington for Saturday’s 10-race grand finale of the 13-race, $24.5 million fall championship event which is coming to Del Mar in 2017.

 

Del Mar will offer races from Keeneland beginning at 9:30 a.m. (Pacific) on Friday in addition to a nine-race live card starting at 12:45. On Saturday, there will be 12 races from Keeneland starting at 8 a.m. (Pacific) and nine local races starting at 12:45.

 

Talamo has mounts on six of eight races today while Graham rides four and Pedroza two. In Kentucky, Talamo rides Obviously (15-1) in the Mile and Hard Aces (50-1) in the Classic.

 

“Obviously is obviously the speed of the race; he’s very quick,” Scott McClellan, Talamo’s agent, said Wednesday. The Irish-bred 7-year-old trained by Phil D’Amato, back-to-back wire-to-wire winner of the Del Mar Mile in 2012 and 2013, made his first start of 2015 and finished third in the Grade I Woodbine Mile in Canada on September 13 after setting the pace into the stretch. Obviously, ridden by Talamo for the past three years, was fifth in the 2014 Breeders’ Cup Mile at Santa Anita.

 

Gold Cup at Santa Anita winner Hard Aces, who finished sixth in the Pacific Classic, has a monumental task in a race that features Triple Crown winner American Pharoah. Talamo will be aboard for the first time.

 

“Hopefully he’ll run well for Joe, and if the pace is fast enough, he’ll be closing,” McClellan said.

 

Pat O’Brien Stakes winner Appealing Tale, who would have had the shortest odds of Talamo’s Breeders’ Cup mounts, was scratched from the Dirt Mile due to injury.

 

Graham has four mounts today and rides Yahilwa (20-1) for trainer Jim Cassidy in the $2 million Distaff on Friday at Keeneland. Pedroza has two here today and major contender Private Zone (5-2) in the $1.5 million Sprint on Saturday.

 

Perennial riding champion Bejarano has five mounts today and rides seven of nine races on Friday. On Saturday at Keeneland he’s scheduled to ride Forever Darling (30-1) in the Juvenile Fillies, Del Mar Handicap winner Big John B (30-1) in the Turf and Bing Crosby stakes winner Wild Dude (10-1) in the Sprint.

 

“It’s very exciting,” Bejarano said here Thursday morning while waiting to exercise horses for the Doug O’Neill stable. “I like all my Breeders’ Cup horses and I like their post positions. Wild Dude comes from behind (off the pace) but if things go right, we’ve got a very good chance.”

 

Hall of Famer Solis has one mount today and four on Friday here. He rides Super Majesty (10-1) in the Filly & Mare Sprint on Saturday.

 

 

 

The talent level of the Southern California riding colony is reflected in the seven riders in Kentucky who have a total of 22 mounts in the 13 Breeders’ Cup races. When their work in the Blue Grass State is done, expect to see them at Del Mar in the coming weeks. Here are the stars, the horses they’ll ride, and the morning line odds:

 

Victor Espinoza – American Pharoah (Classic, 6-5), Stellar Wind (Distaff, 12-1), Swipe (Juvenile, 15-1), Room For Me (Filly & Mare Sprint, 15-1) and Ready For Rye (Turf Sprint, 10-1).

Mike Smith – Effinex (Classic, 30-1), My Sweet Addiction (Distaff, 20-1), Unbridled Outlaw (Juvenile, 15-1), Masochistic (Sprint, 10-1), Something Extra (Turf Sprint, 12-1) and Songbird (Juvenile Fillies, 7-5).

Gary Stevens – Kobe’s Back (Sprint, 15-1), Taris (Filly & Mare Sprint, 12-1), No Silent (Turf Sprint, 15-1) and Dressed In Hermes (Juvenile Turf, 20-1).

Kent Desormeaux – Exaggerator (Juvenile, 6-1) and Right There (Juvenile Fillies, 30-1).

Mario Gutierrez – Nyquist (Juvenile, 9-2), Land Over Sea (Juvenile Fillies, 8-1).

Tyler Baze – Smooth Roller (Classic, 15-1) and Warren’s Veneda (Distaff, 30-1).

Drayden Van Dyke – Photo Call (Filly & Mare Turf, 12-1).

 

Today is just the start of the second Bing Crosby Season of fall racing at Del Mar. The first of 20  racing days in a meeting that will close on November 29. For the record, here’s the basics.

 

Racing Thursdays through Sundays.

 

First post of 12:30 daily with the exceptions of: Breeders’ Cup days tomorrow (Keeneland simulcast races at 9:30, live Del Mar races at 12:45) and Saturday (Keeneland 8 a.m., Del Mar 12:45); and 11 a.m on Thanksgiving, November 26.

 

Eight-race cards on weekdays, nine on weekends.

 

 

High Strike, owned by Bing Crosby, won the first race at Del Mar on July 3, 1937. Can you name the horse, and connections, that won the first race of a Bing Crosby season, November 7, 2014?

 

 

Smokey Image and Found Money went head-and-head for the first half mile in the six-furlong I’m Smokin Stakes here on September 4 before Smokey Image pulled  away to win by 4 ¼ lengths. The two are matched again, this time at seven furlongs and for a purse that’s $50,000 larger, in Friday’s $200,000 Golden State Juvenile.

 

“(Smokey Image) won by a good margin, That horse is really good and we’ve got a lot of respect for him,” said Leandro Mora, who’ll send out Found Money for the Doug O’Neill stable.

 

“But at seven-eighths, I think we have a chance. Our horse is far better than he was the last time. He’d lost a few days of training with a cold then, but he’s doing really well now and he looks ready.”

 

The field from the rail out: Gio Mio (Rafael Bejarano, 8-1), Smokey Image (Juan Hernandez, 7-5), Defiant One (Felipe Valdez, 30-1), Record Highs (Santiago Gonzalez, 8-1), Bully Pulpit (Tiago Pereira, 6-1), Scatastic (Fernando Perez, 20-1), Family Code (Alonso Quinonez, 5-1), Mana Strike (Leslie Mawing, 12-1), Found Money (Corey Nakatani, 6-1) and Swiss Minister (Alex Solis, 15-1).

 

 

 

Perfectly Majestic returns to the Jimmy Durante Turf Course where he showed good form during the summer meeting in Saturday’s featured $70,000 Let It Ride Stakes for California-bred 3-year-olds.

 

Perfectly Majestic, a gelded son of Majesticperfection trained by Bob Hess, Jr., produced a win at 1 1/16-miles and a third-place result at a mile, the Let It Ride distance, in allowance races in July and August here.

 

Brice Blanc takes over for Kent Desormeaux – on assignment at the Breeders’ Cup. Six were entered for the Let It Ride, which goes as the seventh on a nine-race card.

 

The field, from the rail out: Acceptance (Alonso Quinonez, 5-1), Crittenden (Martin Garcia, 4-1), Perfectly Majestic (Brice Blanc, 7-2), Daddy D T (James Graham, 3-1), Fueled by Bourbon (Santiago Gonzalez, 6-1) and Ground Rules (Corey Nakatani, 5-2).

 

 

 

Wild Caroline ($4.00), owned by Three Kings Racing and Tommy Hutton’s Dream Stable, trained by  Mike Puype and ridden by Tyler Baze, won as the favorite in a maiden claiming mile event.

 

 

Due to the early start of the Breeders’ Cup, there is no handicapping seminar scheduled for Saturday. But the weekend seminar programs will kick off on Sunday as racing media specialist Tom Farrell provides the expertise and selections.

 

The seminars start at 11:30 a.m. and are held at the Seaside Terrace near the top of the stretch.

 

 

CLOSERS – The dream match-up between American Pharoah and Beholder  – envisioned when Beholder beat males in the Pacific Classic here on August 22 – was put asunder two days before the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic when Beholder was scratched after bleeding in a gallop at Keeneland in Lexington. Early reports out of Kentucky said that Beholder would race again in 2016, creating the possibility of a defense of her Pacific Classic title … Horses working over the dirt track Thursday morning were: Exactamente (4f, :51.40), Family Forever (4f, :48.80), Find Joy (4f, :48.40), Flyin for a Livin (4f, :49.20), Let’s Go Everybody (4f, :49.60), Straight N Strong (4f, :48.60), Where’s the D (4f, :49.40), Caradini (5f, 1:00.60), Guns Loaded (5f, :59.40) and Riddle Me (6f, 1:15.00).

 

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