Deftly handled by Hall of Fame rider Kent Desormeaux, Bench Light flashed to the lead in the upper stretch and drew off impressively to win Del Mar’s feature race Thursday, a mile and three-eighths test of stamina over the infield Jimmy Durante grass course.

Bench Light, trained by Mike Pender, scored by 6 ¼ lengths for his seventh triumph in 23 career outings. Money Clip rallied to be second, a head in front of Christopher Street, with Street Maven fourth in the field of ten older horses.

Bench Light, a five-year-old son of Benchmark, accomplished the distance in 2:11.34 and returned $18, $7.60 and $5.60 while earning $60,060 from the purse of $94,882.  Money Clip paid $10.60 and $5.60, while Christopher Street returned $4.60 to show.

here was a single winning ticket in the Pick Six Thursday and it was worth $349,288.60. With a carryover of $67,343 from Wednesday and $395,807 bet Thursday, the Pick Six pool totaled $463,150.

Thursday’s attendance was 9,841.