Newfound Gold, Photo ©Benoit Photo
HESS’ OPENING DAY WIN TEMPERED BY CLAIM LOSS
Trainer Bob Hess Jr., among the earliest arrivals for the Bing Crosby Season and with the largest contingent of horses on the grounds, got off on an encouraging note when his first starter, Newfound Gold, won the third race on opening day Thursday.
But the next time Newfound Gold runs it will be for trainer Javier Sierra, who claimed the 8-year-old gelding for $12,500.
“I hated to see him claimed, but you run to win and part of that is putting them in spots where they can,” Hess said.
Hess has his entire 40-horse contingent here and shipped it in when the stable area opened last week.
“I wanted them all in one spot, under one program,” Hess said. “I think the horses like it down here with the open-air barns, high ceilings and better ventilation. The horses, and the help, seem to like it here.”
A back-to-back summer meeting training champion in 1991-92, Hess had a banner year in 2014 of 15 victories and a 24 percent win mark. He came into the inaugural Bing Crosby Season with hopes of carrying over that momentum.
Four wins from 33 starters, with 13 more in-the-money results, didn’t meet his personal expectations.
“I was thinking eight wins or so and got half that many,” Hess said. “The horses ran pretty well but the (wins) weren’t as frequent as I hoped.”
Hess has two scheduled starters on today’s program, Blue Law (5-2) in the sixth and Mothernaturespell (9-2) in the nightcap. He’ll saddle Perfectly Majestic (7-2) in Saturday’s featured $75,000 Let It Ride Stakes as his final representative of the meet’s first week.
He’s got two horses on the roster that were claimed out of races at Belmont Park and Keeneland, for owners who fancy the Ship And Win program and bought them to run here.. “There’s more enthusiasm among my clients to run here, summer or fall,” Hess said.
Hess also is looking forward to starting newly-acquired, from a sale in France, 2-year-old French Getaway. Possibly the best horse in the stable, Cleanup Hitter, a half to Undrafted, worked six furlongs here last Monday in 1:15.20 for a start on the third weekend of the meeting.
QUOTE OF THE (OPENING) DAY
Larry Zap, spokesman for the Peter Eurton stable of Golden State Juvenile Fillies stakes winner Pacific Heat on the Bing Crosby Season at Del Mar:
“We love everything about this. Thank you Bing. We lose Hollywood Park and Pomona in one year, but when Del Mar picks up a slice of the pie we’re all lucky. We’re glad to be here and win on opening day.”
EARLY BIRD SPAWR CATCHES A PAIR OF WINS
Trainer Bill Spawr brought 20 horses down from Santa Anita last week with the expressed purpose of getting them settled in before the start of the meeting. It paid dividends on opening day when Spawr saddled Vanlose Stairway ($19.40) to win the seventh race and Born To Serve (7.20) the eighth.
“Pretty good start,” Spawr said Friday morning. “I really think that getting those horses here early really helped. They’re both nervous types but they handled everything well.”
Spawr celebrated by going to dinner with friend and retired trainer Jay Robbins, conditioner of two-time Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Tiznow. But at one point Spawr had to excuse himself from the table.
“I was getting so many calls the battery on my cell phone went dead,” Spawr said.
WHAT’S IN A NAME – GOLDEN STATE JUVENILE
Today’s Golden State Juvenile Stakes, the seventh on the nine-race card, is the Fall championship event in the Golden State series for California-bred or California-sired two-year-olds and comes a day after its counterpart race for 2-year-old fillies.
DADDY D T PRIMED FOR COMEBACK IN LET IT RIDE
A year to the day after finishing third in the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf, Daddy D T ends a seven-month layoff as part of a six-horse field for Saturday’s featured $75,000 Let It Ride Stakes.
The Let It Ride goes as the seventh of a nine-race card starting at 12:45 that will be intertwined with the simulcast of 10 Breeders’ Cup races from Keeneland. The Keeneland card starts at 8 a.m. (Pacific).
Trained by John Sadler for Hronis Racing LLC, Daddy D T’s lone victory in seven starts came in the Oak Tree Juvenile Turf here in September of 2014 and led to the Breeders’ Cup start on Halloween Day.
“He was a respectable third in the Breeders’ Cup and ran well in his next two starts,” Sadler assistant Larry Benavidez, who will saddle Daddy D T in the Let It Ride, said by phone Friday morning from Santa Anita. “His next race (March allowance at Santa Anita) was a disappointment and even though there was nothing wrong he looked like he needed some time off.
“He’s doing well now and his last two works he’s finished like gang busters.”
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).
ELEKTRUM TABBED AS FAVORITE FOR GOLDIKOVA
John C. Mabee Stakes winner Elektrum returns to Del Mar on Sunday and has been established as the 8-5 favorite on oddsmaker Russ Hudak’s morning line for the Grade II $200,000 Goldikova Stakes, the first of 10 graded events in the 20-day Bing Crosby Season.
The field, from the rail: Gender Agenda (Tyler Baze, 3-1), Stormy Lucy (Corey Nakatani, 5-1), Queen of The Sand (Mike Smith, 5-2), Uzziel (Kent Desormeaux, 8-1), Living The Life (Joe Bravo, 15-1) and Elektrum (Victor Espinoza, 8-5).
CLOSERS – Nineteen horses worked Friday morning over the main track. The fastest, by distance, were: Yana (4f, :48.0), Mixio (5f, :59.20) and Christopher Street (6f, 1:14.80) … Trainer Art Sherman reported that 2014 Horse of the Year California Chrome has made good progress since returning to his stable at Los Alamitos about a month ago. “He’s been galloping and it won’t be long before we start breezing him, within a week or two,” Sherman said.
Contact: Dan Smith 858-792-4226/Hank Wesch 858-755-1141 ext. 3793