Carryovers in Pick Six and Super High 5 Available Saturday

Nevada Beach © Benoit Photo

Grade I winner Nevada Beach looms large in Saturday’s Grade III Native Diver Stakes for three-year-olds and up going a mile and one eighth at Del Mar.

Nevada Beach prevailed in his first graded stakes assignment when taking the Grade I Goodwood Stakes at Santa Anita on September 27 by 1½ lengths. With the win, he earned a 101 Beyer speed figure and also a spot in the $7 million Breeders’ Cup Classic here on November 1. In the Breeders’ Cup Classic, Nevada Beach lacked racing room early and was never a factor, finishing seventh. Trained by Bob Baffert, Nevada Beach won the Los Alamitos Derby by 4¼ lengths at a mile and one eighth on June 28 with Juan Hernandez, who is riding back. The Omaha Beach colt is 5-3-1-0 overall with $366,500 in earnings and is 2-2 at the Native Diver distance. Owned by Mike Pegram, Karl Watson, and Paul Weitman the Omaha Beach colt is the only stakes winner in the field.

While still a maiden, Westwood tried his hand in the Grade I Santa Anita Derby five starts back in April. He came in third, 8½ lengths behind his stablemate Baeza. Trained by John Shirreffs, Westwood subsequently was fourth, beaten 5½ lengths, in the Affirmed Stakes when facing Baffert’s duo of Gaming and Nevada Beach. He broke his maiden going one mile here on August 24 and has since been second in his last two outings. Owned by C R K Stables, he will look to improve on his record of 8-1-3-2 with new rider Umberto Rispoli taking the call.

Field of five in post position order: Indispensable, Hector Berrios 122; Westwood, Umberto Rispoli 118; Nevada Beach, Juan Hernandez 122; British Isles, Diego Herrera 121; Clouseau, Kyle Frey 121.

With the cancellation of Friday’s card due to weather, the $2 Pick Six carryover of $51,879 and $1 Super High Five carryover of $23,912 will be available on Saturday.

First post time for a nine-race card is 12:30 PM. The Native Diver is slated as the eighth race with an approximate post time of 4:00 PM.