King of Gosford © Benoit Photo
DEL MAR KICKS OFF FALL STAKES SCHEDULE WITH THE LET IT RIDE
It promises to be quite a week at Del Mar starting with tomorrow’s opening day of the 2024 Bing Crosby Season. Nine races have been carded for the first of 16 days of racing including Friday and Saturday’s Breeders’ Cup. Thursday’s program is highlighted by the $100,000 Let It Ride Stakes.
Ten 3-year olds will line-up for the one mile turf event. Trainer Phil D’Amato has brought a pair of his horses to the dance. King of Gosford is the morning line favorite but will have to overcome and outside draw in the test. After winning his first three races in the U.S., the English-bred finished sixth in the Oceanside Stakes on opening day of the summer meet at Del Mar. He rebounded with a runner-up finish to Formidable Man in the La Jolla Handicap two weeks later and then most recently returned to the hillside turf course at Santa Anita and finished third in the G2 Eddie D.
“He’s training very well,” D’Amato says. “I think a mile against straight 3-year-olds should be a good spot for him.”
Flavien Prat will ride King of Gosford.
“He won on him in his very first race in the country,” D’Amato adds. “So we’re reuniting them.”
D’Amato’s other entry is Siennois, an Irish-bred who broke his maiden at Santa Anita in June after making his debut in France in 2023. The gelding raced twice at Del Mar last summer, finishing sixth and fourth in entry level allowance races. Irad Ortiz, Jr., in from the east coast for the Breeders’ Cup, has been named to ride Siennois in the Let It Ride.
Trainer Ron Ellis also is bringing two horses to the Thursday feature. Sketchy got run down in an entry level allowance race on opening weekend at Del Mar this summer. Undeterred, Ellis took a shot and ran Sketchy in the Del Mar Derby and finished fifth. The son of Uncle Mo came back and missed by a neck to Heart Headed at Santa Anita last month.
“I don’t think the stake came up much tougher than a one-other-than so he’s competitive in there,” Ellis says of the Let It Ride. “He’s improving and he’s gotten better about relaxing. He was running his best getting on the front end but I don’t think he has to be there.”
Ellis also runs Sine Qua Non. He’s recruited Joel Rosario to ride.
In addition to his numerous Breeders’ Cup horses, trainer Brad Cox has brought one out with him to Del Mar for the Let It Ride. Take Me to Church ran in Ireland as a 2-year-old and for a portion of his 3-year-old campaign. He arrived at Cox’ barn this summer and ran twice in New York. The first was a near catastrophe in the G3 Saranac in which the leader, The Big Torpedo, broke down in the stretch, tripping Take Me To Church on his inside and sending the son of Churchill crashing into the rail. As bad as it looked, Take Me to Church only suffered scrapes and bruises.
“He came out of it great,” Cox says. “He bounced back and ran a good race at Aqueduct. He definitely fits with this group of horses on paper and if he moves forward a little bit he’ll be right there.”
Take Me To Church returned to finish third in the Gio Ponti Stakes at the Belmont at Aqueduct meet earlier this month.
Heart Headed is coming off of that entry level allowance race where he beat Sketchy. He was claimed from Hronis Racing and trainer John Sadler two races back and is now trained by George Papaprodromou.
The Let Ride Stakes is the eighth race on the Thursday card. Probable post time is 4 p.m.
Here is the field from the rail with the jockeys and the morning line odds: Promissio (Hector Berrios, 12-1); Siennois (Irad Ortiz, Jr., 10-1); Sine Qua Non (Joel Rosario, 15-1); Heart Headed (Umberto Rispoli, 7-2); Sketchy (Jose Valdivia, Jr., 8-1); Grogu (Kyle Frey, 20-1); Take Me To Church (Antonio Fresu, 3-1); American Glory (Oisin, 20-1); British Isles (Diego Herrera, 12-1), and King of Gosford (Flavien Prat, 5-2).
2017 REVISITED: DEL MAR HOSTS ITS FIRST BREEDERS’ CUP
After years of campaigning and a major renovation to the Jimmy Durante Turf Course, the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club finally got its Breeders’ Cup in 2017. It was worth the wait.
The 34th running of the World Championships featured the Horse of the Year and all the eventual Eclipse Award winners for 2017. There were several high-priced upsets. Gun Runner’s victory in the Classic was not one of them.
The son of Candy Ride capped off his nearly perfect year with an impressive win, though it should be noted the eventual Horse of the Year was not the favorite in the Classic. That honor went to Bob Baffert’s Arrogate, who had beaten Gun Runner in their only previous meeting in the Dubai World Cup in March. It would be the only blemish on Gun Runner’s 2017 campaign. Arrogate would finish fifth in the Classic while Pacific Classic winner Collected finished second.
The Breeders’ Cup festivities began on Friday with only four Breeders’ Cup races and it wasn’t the “Future Stars” format like we have today. Instead, the card was highlighted by the Distaff and included the Dirt Mile and a pair of Juvenile turf races.
Forever Unbridled rolled home much the best in the Distaff. The victory clinched the Eclipse Award for Older Dirt Female for the daughter of Unbridled’s Song.
An announced attendance of 32,278 watched as Battle of Midway captured the Dirt Mile. The super talented Rushing Fall took the Juvenile Fillies Turf and Mendelssohn would take home the first of three victories by Euro invaders with a score in the Juvenile Turf.
Breeders’ Cup Saturday was a big day for local trainer Peter Miller who became the first conditioner to saddle two back-to-back winners of the same Breeders’ Cup event. He won the Turf Sprint with Stormy Liberal for the second year in a row and then Roy H defended his crown in the Sprint.
World Approval would win the Mile and clinch his Eclipse Award for top Turf Horse and Good Magic won the Juvenile becoming the first horse to break his maiden in a Breeders’ Cup race. The colt would go on to run second in the following spring’s Kentucky Derby and has earned his stripes as a top sire with a Belmont Stakes winner in Dornoch, a Pacific Classic winner in Mixto and an Arkansas Derby winner in Muth, all in 2024.
Other winners on the Breeders’ Cup card at Del Mar in 2017 were Caledonia in the Juvenile Fillies; two European invaders, Wuheida in the Mile and Talismanic in the Turf; and Bar of Gold, who won the Filly and Mare Sprint and paid $135.40 on a $2 win ticket, which is the third highest payoff in Breeders’ Cup history behind only Arcangue in 1993 and Order of Australia in 2020.
37,692 packed into the Del Mar grandstand Saturday to enjoy the racing on a sun soaked November afternoon. Over the two days, more than $166 million was wagered on the races, a Breeders’ Cup record at the time.
CHAMPIONSHIP AUCTION SET FOR TONIGHT AT DEL MAR
The Keeneland Championship Sale is set to take place tonight in the paddock at Del Mar. It’s the first time for the event and there will be several different offerings involving Breeders’ Cup contenders and past champions.
There will be a stallion shares in Horse of the Year Flightline and this year’s Turf Sprint favorite Cogburn. There are also ownership interests in this year’s Breeders’ Cup contenders, Mufasa (Dirt Mile) and Gold Phoenix (Turf), three-time winner of the G2 Del Mar Handicap.
The sales catalog is available at Championship.Keeneland.com. FanDuel will provide live coverage. The event begins at 5 p.m. and the sale starts at 6.
COOLING OUT: The Let It Ride Stakes is named after the popular racing movie from 1989 and, sadly, one of the main characters in the movie passed away earlier this week. While comedic actress Teri Garr may be best known for her roles in “Young Frankenstein” and “Tootsie”, race fans will always remember Garr as Pam, the wife of Jay Trotter in “Let It Ride.” Garr was 79…Several scratches in the Breeders’ Cup were announced one day after entries were taken. Non Compliant, the winner of the G2 Oak Leaf at Santa Anita earlier this month and third favorite in the Juvenile Fillies was scratched by trainer Bob Baffert after failing a PET scan. Non Compliant broke her maiden at Del Mar this past summer. Also scratched was Out on Bail in the Juvenile Turf Sprint. That allows Doug O’Neill’s Pali Kitten to get into the race. The third defection was a vet scratch of Ylang Ylang from the Aiden O’Brien barn. She was set to run in the Filly and Mare Turf…Notable works on Wednesday: Dirt – Ushba Tesoro (5f, 1:05.80)