Soul Driver’s victory in the Oceanside Stakes on Opening Day got the Summer Meeting off to a rousing start for trainer Jeff Mullins.

 

On Sunday, the penultimate day of the meeting, the Kentucky-bred son of Street Boss could provide his connections – Mullins and the ownership group headed by Oceanside’s Jeff Bloom – with a fantastic finish to the meet with a victory in the $250,000 Grade II Del Mar Derby.

 

Soul Driver, who’ll be ridden for the second time by Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith, is the third choice at 7-2 on oddsmaker Russ Hudak’s morning line behind Prospect Park (8-5) and Om (5-2).

 

The Del Mar Derby closes the stakes series for 3-year-olds which began with the Oceanside and continued with the La Jolla Handicap on Saturday, August 9. Mullins opted to pass on the La Jolla, which was won impressively by Prospect Park, and wait for the Derby.

 

“I don’t see any reason to run a horse of this quality three times here,” Mullins said Saturday morning. “The meeting’s too short.”

 

The Oceanside was the second straight win for Soul Driver, following one in the $87,000 Singletary at Santa Anita on June 20. The Del Mar Derby will be the second graded stakes try for the colt, who has three wins in nine career starts and earnings of $150,840 in 2015 and $203,350 in his career.

 

Soul Driver charged from 10^th in a field of 11 at the halfway mark of the one-mile Oceanside to prevail by a nose. The Derby is an extra eighth of a mile.

 

“He’s already won at the distance,” Mullins pointed out – a maiden-breaking effort in his second career start last October at Santa Anita. Prospect Park is 0-for-2 at 1 1/8 miles, but both those races were on dirt and against the likes of Dortmund in the Santa Anita Derby and Gimme Da Lute, who nosed him out in the Los Alamitos Derby. Om has never raced longer than 1 1/16 miles.

 

Mullins capped a big first week of the meeting when he saddled Gabriel Charles to victory in the Grade I Eddie Read. In early August, however,  Gabriel Charles suffered a severe bout of colic from which he is recovering after emergency surgery at an equine hospital in Bonsal.

 

Mullins has five wins from 25 starters for the meeting and an overall 44 percent in the money record with purse earnings of $457,892.

 

The field from the rail: Win the Space (Joe Talamo, 15-1), Prospect Park (Kent Desormeaux, 8-5), Soul Driver (Mike Smith, 7-2), Papacoolpapacool (Tiago Pereira, 8-1), Royal Albert Hall (Flavien Prat, 15-1), Om (Gary Stevens, 5-2) and Crittenden (Rafael Bejarano, 6-1).

 

The Del Mar Derby is the seventh on a 10-race card with an approximate post time of 5:10 p.m.

 

 

Del Mar officials anticipate a 12-to-15 minute duration for the parading of American Pharoah for fans after Sunday’s fourth race.

           

The walking ring and tunnelway to the track will be cleared following the horses leaving the paddock for the fourth race to facilitate the arrival of American Pharoah, members of the families of owner Ahmed Zayat and trainer Bob Baffert, a TVG camera crew and Del Mar Thoroughbred Club President and CEO Joe Harper.

           

A 90-second “career” video will be played on the in-house network at approximately 3:52, then American Pharoah and his four handlers – assistant trainer Jim Barnes, groom Lalo Luna, exercise rider George Alvarez and Baffert’s son Bode – will enter the walking ring via the path from the receiving barn.

           

After making three laps around the walking ring, the Pharoah crew will head down the tunnelway.

           

American Pharoah will enter the track to the strains of “New York/New York,” a favorite of Zayat, and his path from there will be west to midway between the eighth and 16^th poles, then east past the Clubhouse stands for an exit at the seven-furlong gap.

NOTE TO ALL MEDIA: Only the Zayat Family, Baffert Family, the TVG film crew and Joe Harper will be allowed in the walking ring or tunnel to the racetrack during the presentation of American Pharoah for the public.

 

With scratches the last three days still to be factored in, Racing Secretary David Jerkens said Saturday that the overall average field size for the meeting projects to be 8.7 or 8.8 per race.

           

“It’s a solid number, comparable to last year, but with four additional days and over 30 scratches due to the rain the first weekend,”  Jerkens said. “Once again, we’re thankful for the support  of the horsemen.”

 

           

Connections for 2-year-old filly Gomo and 2-year-old colt Annie’s Candy have opted to scratch from stakes races Saturday in favor of Monday stakes events.

           

Gomo, trained by Doug O’Neill for Reddam Racing LLC, was double-entered in Saturday’s Grade I $300,000 Del Mar Debutante and Monday’s $100,000 Del Mar Juvenile Fillies Turf and will go in the latter.

           

Paul Reddam’s racing organization will be represented by Land Over Sea in the Debutante and O’Neill also has Mitzi Winks for the juvenile filly championship of the meeting.

           

Annie’s Candy, trained by Peter Miller for Rockingham Ranch, was entered in Saturday’s $100,000 Del Mar Juvenile Turf and Monday’s Grade I $300,000 Del Mar Futurity and will be sent out in the Futurity, which determines the 2-year-old champion of the meeting and was won last year by Triple Crown Champion American Pharoah.

             

 

 

 

In Flavien Prat’s native French the phrase is “Dans la zone.” In English: “In the zone.”

 

Say it however you choose, the 23-year-old from Melun, France has been winning races with uncommon consistency over the last two days and has climbed to second in the jockey standings.

 

Victories aboard Public House  ($21.60) and Dreamologist  ($5.60) in Friday’s first and fourth races, combined with four wins on Friday’s card put Prat on a six-for-nine streak. His 27 wins in his rookie Del Mar season are one more than Joe Talamo and nine behind leading Rafael Bejarano in the standing.

 

Prat was the leading rider after the first week of the meeting with six wins and said Saturday morning the feeling has been similar the last few days.

 

“You don’t know why it happens,” Prat said. “Sometimes you get lucky and things go right. Sometimes you’re unlucky and they don’t. To win four  races in a day for the first time, I’m very happy. It has been a very good meeting for me.”

 

While Bejarano would appear to have a lock on the rider’s title for a fourth straight year, the training race remains to be decided between 2014 co-champions Jerry Hollendorfer and Peter Miller.

 

Hollendorfer has a four-win lead and 14 horses entered over the last three days. Miller has 15 entered.

 

 

 

Reddam Racing LLC’s Nyquist drew post position No. 5 and was named the 5-2 favorite in a field of eight for Monday’s Grade I $300,000 Del Mar Futurity, the traditional Closing Day feature.

 

Del Mar is ending its Summer Meeting on Labor Day for what is believed to be the first time in its 76-year history. Most recent meetings have ended on the Wednesday following Labor Day, with a day off in between.

 

Nyquist, trained by Doug O’Neill,  is 2-for-2 in his career and comes in off an impressive 5 ¼-length win in the Best Pal Stakes on August 8.

 

The field from the rail out:  Nightly News (Rafael Bejarano, 8-1), Annie’s Candy (Victor Espinoza, 10-1), Swipe (Kent Desormeaux, 4-1), Mt Veeder (Martin Garcia, 5-2), Archaeo (James Graham, 20-1), Blameitonthelaw (Tyler Baze, 3-1) and Rockin Bayou (Mike Smith, 6-1).

 

 

           

The Triple Crown champion jogged once around the perimeter of the track, unaccompanied, with exercise rider George Alvarez up.

 

 

 

Barretts will conduct six sales at Del Mar in 2016, marking the first year that all Barretts sales will be held here.

 

A notable change from the 2015 sales calendar is the Wednesday, March 30, sale date for the Select Two-Year-Olds in Training Sale, a month later than in 2015. “Last year’s February date proved difficult for consignors, and with the completion of the Del Mar track resurfacing from synthetic to dirt, we are now able to take advantage of the later date opening in March,” said Barretts general manager Kim Lloyd.

 

“We’re very encouraged by the positive feedback generated by the new Del Mar location, particularly at the May Sale. The sale session at the Surfside Race Place opened to a packed pavilion, and concluded with a 38.5% increase in gross sales over the previous year.”

 

The 2016 Barretts sales dates are: January Mixed Sale (Wednesday, Jan. 27); Select Two-Year-Olds in Training Sale (Wednesday, March 30); May Sale of Two-Year-Olds in Training (Wednesday, May 25); The Paddock Sale (Saturday, July 16); August Select Yearling Sale (date to be determined) and the Fall Sale of Yearlings and Horses of All Ages (Wed. Oct. 26).

CLOSERS – Beholder had onlookers backing away when she reared and kicked in the walking area of Hall of Fame trainer Richard Mandella’s enclosed barn Saturday morning. “She gets a little wound up after she works,” Mandella said with a smile. “You can tell she’s feeling good.” Beholder went three furlongs in :36.00 under exercise rider Janine Painter in her first work since the romping victory in the $1 million TVG Pacific Classic … Other selected works from 123 officially timed Saturday morning: You Know I Know (5f, 1:03.00), Holy Lute (5f, 1:01.40), Crucero (5f, 1:01.20), Talco (4f, :47.60), Midnight Storm (4f, :49.00), Hard Aces (4f, :47.80), Big John B (4f, :49.00) and Bailoutbobby (4f, :48.80) … Imflatoutsweet (5-2) was installed as the morning line favorite in a field of 12 for Monday’s  $100,000 Del Mar Juvenile Fillies Turf … Big Macher, winner of the 2014 Bing Crosby Stakes, is the 5-2 favorite and will break from outside post position No. 12 in Monday’s $80,000 Pirate’s Bounty Stakes.

 

 

 DEL MAR STATISTICS

 

Jockey Standings
(Current Through Friday, September 4, 2015 Inclusive)
Jockey	Mts	1st	2nd	3rd	Win%	Money Won
Rafael Bejarano	199	36	40	25	18%	$2,319,274
Flavien Prat	172	27	26	25	16%	$1,972,724
Joseph Talamo	174	26	15	14	15%	$1,511,618
Tyler Baze	194	24	26	29	12%	$1,494,370
Santiago Gonzalez	162	23	15	22	14%	$1,283,096
Mario Gutierrez	125	23	15	10	18%	$1,267,486
Martin Garcia	131	18	13	16	14%	$1,214,840
Kent Desormeaux	94	17	12	12	18%	$886,204
Corey Nakatani	84	16	10	4	19%	$748,026
James Graham	127	12	21	14	9%	$972,124

 

Trainer Standings
(Current Through Friday, September 4, 2015 Inclusive)
Trainer	Sts	1st	2nd	3rd	Win%	Money Won
Jerry Hollendorfer	87	21	10	12	24%	$1,287,762
Peter Miller	125	17	21	17	14%	$1,206,780
Doug F. O'Neill	98	14	20	11	14%	$1,130,940
Richard Baltas	69	14	7	13	20%	$732,378
Philip D'Amato	80	12	10	13	15%	$930,942
Mike Puype	71	12	4	8	17%	$655,490
Bob Baffert	58	11	10	8	19%	$900,070
John W. Sadler	53	11	4	5	21%	$588,134
Robert B. Hess, Jr.	56	11	3	8	20%	$370,562
Mark Glatt	60	8	6	7	13%	$414,040

 

Winning Favorites Report
(Current Through Friday, September 4, 2015 Inclusive)
Winning favorites	98	323	30.34%
Winning favorites on dirt	71	220	32.27%
Winning favorites on turf	27	103	26.21%
Winning odds-on favorites	20	38	52.63%
In-the-Money favorites	187	323	57.89%
In-the-Money odds-on favorites	34	38	89.47%

 

 

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