Elektrum
NO BREEDERS’ CUP? NO PROBLEM FOR ELEKTRUM
The plan was for Elektrum, winner of the John C. Mabee Stakes here last summer, to be running today in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Keeneland in Lexington, Kentucky.
However, when the fields were drawn Monday – with horses in oversubscribed races given priority by selection committee rankings – Elektrum was the first of two on an also-eligible list. Meaning there would have to be a scratch for the 4-year-old filly owned by Hronis Racing LLC of brothers Pete and Kosta Hronis and trained by John Sadler to make the race.
Rather than taking the chance of sending Elektrum to Kentucky and having her left standing in a stall when the race was run, the filly’s connections opted to skip a Tuesday ship and run the Irish-bred daughter of High Chaparral in Sunday’s Grade II $200,000 Goldikova Stakes here.
As fate would have it, Irish-bred 4-year-old filly Bawina was a late scratch from the Filly & Mare Turf and, in the absence of Elektrum, Talmada inherited the spot in the starting gate but also scratched.
Instead of entering a gate in Kentucky for the 11:10 (Pacific) post, Elektrum’s schedule today called for a van ride down the I-5 for an approximate noon arrival and schooling in the paddock here before today’s second race.
“It was a little disappointing, but life goes on,” Sadler assistant Larry Benavidez said Friday. “If she would have gotten in, she would have been in the outside post. And that’s one salty race with all those European horses.”
Rather than a field of 14 with morning-line odds of 30-1 Elektrum, imported from Europe last fall, will face five rivals as the 8-5 morning line favorite in the Goldikova.
“She’s doing wonderful, looking great and training well,” said Benavidez.
The Goldikova 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).
WHAT’S IN A NAME – LET IT RIDE STAKES
Today’s Let It Ride Stakes, the seventh on a nine-race card, is a nod to the 1989 film of that title which starred Richard Dreyfuss and is considered a classic by racetrack movie buffs.
DEL MAR CONNECTIONS IN BREEDERS’ CUP: DAY ONE RUNDOWN
Highlights for Del Mar-connected horses and riders on Friday, the first day of the Breeders’ Cup Championships at Keeneland in Lexington, Ky.
$1 million Dirt Mile – Red Vine, third to Beholder in the Pacific Classic, owned by Del Mar Thoroughbred Club Director Jon S. Kelly his wife Sarah and partners, finished third behind odds-on favorite Liam’s Map.
$2 million Distaff – In her first race since winning the Torrey Pines Stakes here on August 30, Stellar Wind, trained by John Sadler and ridden by Victor Espinoza, finished second in a duel with Stopchargingmaria from the eighth pole to the wire. The result stood through a stewards’ inquiry into bumping between the two down the stretch.
BAILOUTBOBBY WINS ONE FOR THE HOME TEAM
The victory by Bailoutbobby, ridden by Joel Rosario, in the $200,000 Marathon, the 10th of 12 races on Friday’s Breeders’ Cup Day I card at Keeneland, ignited a celebration in the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club executive offices.
Bailoutbobby is trained by Doug O’Neill for a partnership that includes the Great Friends Stable headed by San Diego radio station Mighty 1090 sports talk hosts Scott Kaplan and Billy Ray Smith. Del Mar Executive Vice President Craig Dado is the racing manager for Great Friends, which owns one-third of Bailoutbobby.
A 5-year-old gelded son of Mizzen Mast, Bailoutbobby was runner-up to Big John B in the Cougar II Handicap and eighth to Beholder in the Pacific Classic here last summer.
Dado watched the race from his DMTC office with six others around and Kaplan on the telephone. Dado’s immediate reacton was “Holy ….”
“Great Friends had a lot of success with Joel Rosario when he rode here, so when he took the mount, it gave us a lot of confidence,” Dado said.
CLOSERS – Perennial riding champion Rafael Bejarano, at Keeneland today with three Breeders’ Cup mounts, left the Del Mar jockey colony something to remember him by during his one-day hiatus – four wins in Friday’s nine-race program. They came aboard Sky Forever ($11.20) in the fourth race, Fishel ($15.60) in the sixth, Bal a Bali ($3.80) in the eighth and Fab Four Ever ($9.80) in the ninth … Hall of Fame trainer Ron McAnally, a Rancho Santa Fe resident, has 10 horses on the grounds.
Contact: Dan Smith 858-792-4226/Hank Wesch 858-755-1141 ext. 3793