Thought Process © Benoit Photo
Heavily-favored Thought Process, a daughter of Collected who was seeking her third stakes victory, walked her beat Saturday afternoon at Del Mar and turned back eight rivals in fine fashion to capture the $202,000 San Clemente Handicap for 3-year-old fillies going a mile on the lawn. Final time for the race was 1:36.24 and the winning margin was a length and three quarters.
Jockey Hector I. Berrios put his charge in the race right from the start, then took command on the far turn and finished up clearly best. The chestnut returned $2.80 and picked up a first prize of $120,000.
Grass specialist Phil D’Amato saddled the winner and earned his second stakes victory on the afternoon. Earlier the conditioner captured the Wickerr Stakes with favored Almendares.
Finishing second in the San Clemente was Pegram, Watson and Weitman’s Casalu, who was three quarters of a length better than Augustin Stables’ Will Then.
Thought Process now has earnings of $344,200 and five tallies in seven lifetime starts. All of her races have come on turf.
Earlier, favored Almendares fired late to outfinish nine rivals in a good renewal of the Wickerr Stakes, a $102,500 overnight handicap that drew a topnotch field.
The 5-year-old gelding by the British sire Havana Grey was home by a length and a quarter in the mile on turf under Antonio Freu. D’Amato was capturing the race for the third time and – with the addition of his San Clemente triumph – can now boast of 67 Del Mar stakes victories.
Almendares is owned by a collection of partners headed by John Rochfort, Ian McClean and Saul Gevertz. The 5-year-old earned a first prize of $60,000 for his fifth career victory and returned $6.60 to his backers in the Saturday crowd. He now has total earnings of $385,695
Finishing second was Jesse Navaro’s Zio Jo, who had half a length on Stepaside Farm’s Nineeleventurbo.
Racing continues at Del Mar Sunday with first post on an 11-race card at 2 p.m.
HECTOR I. BERRIOS (Thought Process, winner) – “She led in the stretch and she went. The owner contacted my agent, he told me Rispoli is not here, All right, that works for me. The filly she made out easy. She is a big filly you know. I tried to let her relax, but the pace was slow, so I put her out. I didn’t want to get stuck inside, you know. I put her outside in the turn, I lead her, and she went”.
PHIL D’AMATO (Thought Process, winner) – “You never get tired of this, especially at Del Mar. Hector (Berrios) had to move a little bit early but it was a smart move. He saw that they were really slowing down the pace, so I thought that was a good play there. She’s a special filly. I’m just lucky enough to train her and hopefully she can just keep on doing what she’s doing.”
FRACTIONS: :23.82 :48.34 1:12.75 1:24.42 1:36.24
The stakes win was the second of the meet for rider Berrios and his second (Iscreamuscream, 2024) in the San Clemente. He now has 21 stakes wins at Del Mar.
The stakes win was the second of the meet for trainer D’Amato and his third in the San Clemente. He now has 67 stakes wins at Del Mar.
The winning ownership group consists of the Estate of Brereton C. Jones, Little Red Feather Racing and Madaket Stables.