Whiskey Decision © Benoit Photo

There will be a pair of stakes races on the menu at Del Mar Saturday topped by the 74th running of the Yellow Ribbon Stakes, a Grade II that carries a purse of $200,000 earmarked for fillies and mares. They’ll run a mile and one-sixteenth out of the track’s unique slanted turf chute.

Also on the afternoon’s program is the 56th edition of the Best Pal Stakes, a six-panel affair for juveniles that carries a $150,000 offering and a Grade III rating.

The Yellow Ribbon, which goes as Race 8 on the afternoon with a likely post time of approximately 5:30 p.m., has drawn a field of seven.  The Best Pal will be presented as Race 3 with an off time of approximately 3 p.m. and a lineup of six youngsters, five of them colts, one a ridgling.

The horse to beat in the Yellow Ribbon could well be Alpha Delta Sables’ Whiskey Decision, a 5-year-old mare by the kingpin stallion Into Mischief who’ll be making a shift to the west after winning five races and more than a half-million dollars at eastern tracks. Michael McCarthy has taken over the conditioning of the bay and he’s signed on Umberto Rispoli to ride his charge Saturday.

Her chief threat appears to be Rancho Temescal Thoroughbred Partners’ Take A Breath, a 4-year-old filly bred in England and a daughter of the Brit sire Bated Breath. The bay miss won back-to-back stakes at Santa Anita earlier this year for trainer Mark Glatt and will once again by handled by Emisael Jaramillo.

The Best Pal, which is seen as one of the key preps to the meet’s top juvenile event – the Del Mar Futurity scheduled for September 6 – is headed by Holly and David Wilson’s Kennyten, a Drain the Clock colt who was a romping winner in a straight maiden affair in his debut on June 12 at Santa Anita. The Vladimir Cerin-trained youngster will have Ricky Gonzalez in the boot.

His chief threat appears to be Purple Rein Racing or Davis’ He Is No Lie, who won for fun in his debut at Santa Anita in May, then was beaten in a photo in a stakes at Churchill Downs last out. Jaramillo, who handled him in both of those races, is back aboard Saturday.

First post on the afternoon for the 10-race card is 2 p.m.