Dan Blacker © Benoit Photo
THE THRILL OF VICTORY: DAN BLACKER’S BREEDERS’ CUP HIGH
Most kids grow up dreaming of hitting a home run to win the World Series or sinking the winning basket in the NBA Finals. But if you’re a horseman, you dream of saddling a Kentucky Derby or a Breeders’ Cup winner.
So when Straight No Chaser rolled across the finish line ahead of everyone else in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Del Mar earlier this month, it was a dream come true for trainer Dan Blacker.
“I still have to pinch myself to really believe it,” Blacker says. “You work for something for so long. You just hope you can have a horse that’s just good enough to compete in the Breeders’ Cup. To win it is beyond my wildest dreams.”
Straight No Chaser, a 5-year-old son of Speightster, came into Blacker’s life in 2022 at Del Mar’s summer meet where he broke his maiden at first asking.
“Some horses take some time to develop through their works,” Blacker points out, “and they start to show you talents slowly as they progress through their training and even through their racing. Some horses immediately when you start working them you know ‘Wow, this horse is special’ and that was Straight No Chaser.
“You have a lot of horses who work an okay half mile,” Blacker continues. “But when you get to five-eighths that typically separates the good ones from the average. For some reason that extra furlong is the real acid test I’ve found. The first time we worked him five-eighths I couldn’t believe my watch. He did it so easy. I’ve had horses work similar times but never as easy as he did. That’s when I realized this horse can be really good.”
But even at that point, Blacker was not thinking Breeders’ Cup.
“No, I’m thinking ‘He can break his maiden,’” Blacker notes, “or ‘I hope he can be a stakes horse.’ After those first few works if you had told me that he could even be a contender in the Breeders’ Cup it’s something I never would have believed.”
Straight No Chaser showed flashes of brilliance in 2023 when he won an allowance race at Santa Anita by 7 ¼ lengths. Blacker then shipped him back east and he won the G3 Maryland Sprint by 7 ½ lengths on Preakness Stakes Day at Pimlico. But then he was off for nearly a year, returning in May of this year to run fourth in the G3 Runhappy at the Belmont at Aqueduct meet. Straight No Chaser was set to run at Del Mar this past summer in the G1 Bing Crosby but Blacker was forced to scratch the horse days before the race.
“My assistant, Juan Landeros, gets on him every day,” Blacker says. “He’s been on him his entire career. Even though he’s (Straight No Chaser) had a spotty race record he’s been really consistent in the morning to train. Every day he’s the same and he had a really strong final work at Del Mar before the Bing Crosby and then three days before the race he went out for a routine gallop and when he came back Juan said ‘Something doesn’t feel right.’ It was mild but both of us could tell there was something amiss.”
Tests failed to reveal anything major and Blacker and Landeros believe Straight No Chaser knocked himself against the pony and got a little sore.
“Just a trauma issue,” Blacker contends. “Just bad luck.”
It was bitterly disappointing for Blacker who to this day feels they could have won the race which went to The Chosen Vron.
“I have the utmost respect for The Chosen Vron,” Blacker states. “He’s an incredible racehorse and Eric Kruljac has done just an unbelievable job with that horse. But the way that race panned out, there wasn’t a lot of speed, no one really wanted the lead that day and I think my horse would have been tough to beat. I’d love to face off at some point against The Chosen Vron, maybe in the future.”
For now the future holds some rest and relaxation for Straight No Chaser until it’s time to prep for a 2025 campaign.
“The horse came out of the race great,” Blacker says. “If there was a race for him in the short term I’d be open to it but there’s nothing on the calendar for dirt sprinters. More than likely we’ll go easy with him for a little bit and point for a race in the Middle East. Both Saudi and Dubai are certainly in the cards. That will be the next goal for him.”
BAFFERT COVERS ALL THE BASES IN DESI ARNAZ STAKES SATURDAY
Trainer Bob Baffert’s dominance in the 2-year-old class is never more evident than in this weekend’s stakes races at Del Mar. Saturday’s $100,000 Desi Arnaz Stakes has a five horse field. Four belong to Baffert.
The seven-furlong sprint for 2-year-old fillies includes Baffert’s G1 Del Mar Debutante winner Tenma. The daughter of Nyquist has won two of her three lifetime starts, her only setback was last out in the G2 Oak Leaf at Santa Anita where she finished third behind stablemates Non Compliant and Nooni.
“We don’t get a lot of chances to run these horses unfortunately,” Baffert contends. “I don’t know where all the 2-year-olds went. We just feel blessed to be able to run them.”
Baffert also brings Silent Law to the dance. The daughter of Tiz the Law is undefeated after two starts. She broke her maiden by 10 lengths at Los Alamitos in September then returned to win the $90,000 Anoakia Stakes by 3 ½ lengths at Santa Anita. She’s going an extra furlong in the Desi Arnaz.
“She’s a nice filly,” Baffert says. “She’s fast. The farther you go you find out how far they can run.”
Baffert’s other two entries are Two Bar, a last out maiden winner who crossed the finish line 7 ¼ lengths the best at Santa Anita and Mawu, a first-out winner who kicked clear and wired the field by 3 ¼ lengths at Santa Anita last month.
“She looked good breaking her maiden,” Baffert says of Mawu. “She’s going to like going farther.”
The only horse in the race not out of the Baffert barn is trained by his good friend and former assistant Tim Yakteen. Practical Dream ran second to Silent Law in the Anaokia last out.
“I thought she ran a big race,” Yakteen says. “It was the second start of her career. She’s a filly who’s going to look forward to going farther.”
Practical Dream has experience over the Del Mar main track. She broke her maiden here on the last weekend of the summer meet and while Yakteen finds Baffert’s tough entourage formidable, it’s hard to avoid him this time of year.
“You’re going to run against somebody,” Yakteen notes, “whether it’s Bob or somebody else. When you’re at this level you’re always going to run against horses that are competitive.”
The Desi Arnaz, named after the popular actor, bandleader and husband of comedienne Lucille Ball, is the second of nine races on the Saturday card. Probable post time is 1 p.m.
Here’s the field from the rail with the jockeys and morning line odds: Tenma (Hernandez, 3-1); Practical Dream (Antonio Fresu, 5-1); Two Bar (Tiago Pereira, 8-1); Silent Law (Juan Hernandez, 6/5), and Mawu (Kazushi Kimura, 5/2).
JUMBLED GROUPINGS MAKE UP DEL MAR’S JOCKEY, TRAINER STANDINGS
Hector I. Berrios notched four victories last week and has climbed into a first-place tie with Antonio Fresu in the jockey standings after two weeks of racing at Del Mar. Like the hotly contested races on the seaside oval, the quest for top jockey at the meet is as tight as it can get with just four wins separating the top 11 riders.
Fresu, the first week’s leading rider, and Berrios each have six wins followed by Kazushi Kimura, who rang up five victories over last weekend, one of which was the Cary Grant Stakes on board Big City Lights.
Defending champion Juan Hernandez has four wins and is tied with Umberto Rispoli and Tiago Pereira. One of Pereira’s victories came Sunday when he guided Chismosa to a come-from-behind win in the Betty Grable Stakes.
Another trio of riders have three tallies including 37-year-old apprentice Serafin Carmona. The other two jockeys, Flavien Prat and Frankie Dettori, were here for the Breeders’ Cup do not ride at Del Mar fulltime. Prat has plans of returning to Del Mar for the Fall Turf Festival at the end of the month. Dettori might make an appearance if the Wesley Ward horse he’s named to ride makes it into the Matriarch.
Edwin Maldonado and Diego Herrera round out the Top Ten with two wins a piece.
Prat has already clinched the Money Earned portion of the jockey’s title with the $5.5 million he won during the Breeders’ Cup. Umberto Rispoli is next with $1.1 million.
The trainers standings are also a bunched group. Mark Glatt leads the way with five first-place finishes. He’s followed by a trio of trainers at four wins a piece: Doug O’Neill, George Papaprodromou and Peter Miller.
Defending champion Philip D’Amato and Steve Miyadi are next with three victories followed by Tim Yakteen, Bob Baffert, John Shirreffs and Peter Eurton with a pair of wins at the meet.
Baffert’s $2,090,500 in earnings leads that category for trainers followed by D’Amato with $1,324,850.
Nick Alexander and Seahawk Racing lead the owners race with three wins each.
Some might say it’s been a ‘chalky’ meet so far at Del Mar. The favorites have won 24 of the 66 races, a 36% rate. In-the-money favorites are running at a 78% clip and in-the-money odds-on favorites (those below even money) are coming in 92% of the time (13-of-14).
Field sizes continue to be some of the best in the country. Excluding the Breeders’ Cup Days, there have been five days of racing. Average field size is 7.22. The 21 races on the turf have generated an AFS of 8.23.
Twelve horses have qualified for Ship & Win, the program that rewards horsemen with bonuses for first time starters at Del Mar. Three have made it to the winners circle.
HANDICAPPING SEMINARS ON TAP SATURDAY, SUNDAY AT DEL MAR
Del Mar will once again present free handicapping seminars for its fans for the upcoming Saturday and Sunday race cards.
The seminars are held on the patio of the Hacienda Room adjacent to the large fountain in the Plaza de Mexico. They begin at 11:30 a.m. and run for approximately 30 minutes ahead of the first post at 12:30 p.m.
Saturday’s seminar, which is hosted by Frank Scatoni, will feature owner and horseplayer Jerry Weseloh. The Sunday session, led by Dan Smith, will have racing radio host and handicapper Jon Lindo in the driver’s seat.
COOLING OUT: Tamara makes her long awaited return to the races at Del Mar today. The daughter of Beholder, who hasn’t run since suffering an injury in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, has drawn the inside post in the six furlong allowance. It’s Race #7 on the Friday card. Probable post is 3:30 p.m…Saturday is College Day at Del Mar. Anyone with a valid student ID gets in for free…Notable works this week, all on the dirt: Monday – Skinner (5f, :59.20); Wednesday – Sumter (5f, :59.20); Thursday – Express Train (5f, :59.40); Friday – Atitlan (6f, 1:12.80).