Farrin Peterson © Benoit Photo
DAY 13
VET AND JOCKEY BOTH? PETERSON FIGURES SHE’LL ‘IRON’ IT OUT
Farrin Peterson, 26, from Roseville in Northern California, is an honors student in her fourth year of studies at the University of California Davis School of Veterinary Medicine.
She’s also named to ride Chocolate Goddess for trainer Aggie Ordonez in Friday’s second race.
And you thought you had a busy and complicated life, didn’t you?
“I did have an agent, but then when my schedule at school got too complicated I decided to be my own agent the last few months,” Peterson said Thursday during a short break between exercising rides on six horses for three different trainers.
Peterson spent the month of June between Kentucky and Japan on a veterinary internship and the month of July in Dubai in a similar assignment. She returned just a few days ago.
“It took time away from the jockey thing, but I figure the stewards will give me the time back, because I had already started my bug (apprentice weight allowance) and hopefully I’ll get to keep it through Del Mar of next year,” she said.
Riding what amounts to part time since February, she has recorded seven wins from 65 mounts with five seconds and 14 third-place finishes. That’s three wins shy of having the “bug” dropped from seven to five pounds, where it will stay for the remainder of a one-year apprenticeship.
The Chocolate Goddess call is her first opportunity to ride a race at Del Mar. But she’s familiar with the track.
“I galloped horses here all last summer, mainly for Andy Mathis and Steve Miyadi,” she recalled. “I didn’t think I’d be back down here. I remember the last time I rode on the track last year thinking ‘I’ll never get to ride here again.’
“We don’t get a summer vacation the last year of vets’ school, but it worked out that I have a week’s vacation and got into an allowance race. I was blown away, I didn’t expect it at all.”
Peterson didn’t grow up in a horse racing family, but one that had some attachment to equines.
“My mom rode, casually, and she taught me how to ride.,” Peterson said. “I rode dressage growing up, but my dream was always to be a jockey.”
In the 13th day of the meeting, she’ll be the first female jockey to ride at a track that, for one recent meeting, had five women in the jockey colony.
“No way!” Peterson exclaimed when informed of the situation.
“It’s a bummer that things haven’t progressed more. But personally, it makes me more excited. I’d like to take it on. Horse racing is male dominated, I know, but I like a good challenge.”
Chocolate Goddess, a 4-year-old daughter of Square Eddie, has three wins in 19 starts and career earnings of $69,869. She’s been away from racing since December 30 of last year. Her last four starts were all on the artificial Tapeta surface at Golden Gate Fields.
“I’d been working with the trainer (Ordonez) and we talked about how we both wanted to race at Del Mar,” Peterson said. “She told me, ‘I have this filly that might be my Del Mar filly,’ so I got on her to breeze her.
“I had to be at the (veterinary) hospital at 7:30 that day and I live an hour from Golden Gate. So I drove there, worked her, and made it back to the hospital on time.”
The routine went on for a few weeks. Then Peterson had to leave for Dubai.
Races during Peterson’s stay in Dubai were considered as possible starts for Chocolate Goddess. Other riders had to be recruited for morning workouts, complicating the decision for Ordonez and the owning McLean Racing Stables whether to save the mount for Peterson or award it to another rider.
Peterson monitored the situation anxiously from Dubai.
“I was so excited when the owner texted me in Dubai and said I had the call on Chocolate,” Peterson said. “That was all I could think about the rest of the week there.”
Chocolate Goddess is 20-1 on the morning line for the allowance/claiming event with a $62,000 purse.
“She’s a speed horse, so maybe we can just go wire-to-wire,” Peterson said. “That’s what I’m hoping for, but we’ll see how the race turns out.”
Her given name, not exactly common, has significance in the family.
“It means ‘Iron,’” Peterson said. “Ferric is iron on the periodic table. My first chemistry class, when I saw that, it all made sense. My parents always told me, ‘You have an iron will and you’re tough.
“It kind of works with my science background too.”
VAN DYKE HAS A HORSE FOR THE COURSE IN CAMBODIA
Drayden Van Dyke guided Cambodia to victories in both the Grade II $200,000 Yellow Ribbon Stakes and the Grade II $200,000 John C. Mabee Stakes during the 2017 summer meeting and followed that up with a creditable third in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf in November.
And on the eve of the six-year-old daughter of War Front making a Yellow Ribbon title defense for trainer Tom Proctor and owner Winter Quarter Farm, Van Dyke said that ‘guide’ is a key word.
“She’s good to ride,” Van Dyke said Friday morning. “She breaks and puts you in a good spot most of the time. She’s got a nice pull to her, so you don’t have to stay after her. She drags you along and my job is to find an opening and let her run.
“She’s lovely to ride and a horse for the course. If she runs back to those (previous Del Mar) races, she’ll be tough.”
The two stakes wins here last summer contributed to a $572,500 haul in 2017 that boosted Cambodia’s career earnings to $658,913.
“They were definitely the main highlights of my meet last year, and to win for Proctor is extra special for me,” Van Dyke said of the man who brought him to the West Coast and was a tutor and mentor through an Eclipse Award-winning apprentice campaign in 2014 and beyond.
“To win twice on her for the owners, who are really nice people, was really fun, too,” Van Dyke said.
Cambodia drew the No. 11 post in a field of 12.
“I’m drawn to the outside, but I’ve got the main speed (Fahan Mura) to my inside. So I’m going to try and follow her out of there and try to drop over coming out of the chute, save some ground and go from there,” Van Dyke said.
The field from the rail: Beau Recall (Corey Nakatani, 8-1), Sassy Little Lila (Tyler Baze, 15-1), Midnight Crossing (Tiago Pereira, 20-1), Hallie Belle (Joe Bravo, 10-1), Tisbutadream (Tyler Conner, 20-1), Storm the Hill (Rafael Bejarano, 9-2), Madame Stripes (Geovanni Franco, 8-1), Sophie P (Kent Desormeaux, 8-1), Ancient Secret (Mike Smith, 8-1), Fahan Mura (Edwin Maldonado, 5-1), Cambodia (Drayden Van Dyke, 7-2), and Pantsonfire (Alonso Quinonez, 20-1).
BELLAFINA TABBED FAVORITE OF 10 IN SUNDAY’S SORRENTO
Kaleem Shah’s Bellafina, trained by Simon Callaghan, goes from a second-place finish in her debut a month ago to favorite on oddsmaker Russ Hudak’s morning line for Sunday’s featured Grade II $200,000 Sorrento Stakes for two-year-old fillies.
Bellafina, a daughter of Quality Road who was an $800,000 purchase at the Fasig Tipton sale in March, showed her inexperience but made up some ground in the stretch to be second to Katieleigh in a five-furlong race at Los Alamitos on July 4 and has two solid works since. At 7-2 on the morning line, Bellafina gets the nod over another maiden, 9-2 Del Mar May, also a runner-up in her initial start here on July 18.
Trainer Wesley Ward, who won the 2014 Sorrento with Sunset Glow, has dispatched Dragic, a Kentucky-bred daughter of Broken Vow, for the six-furlong stepping stone to the Grade I $300,000 Del Mar Debutante on September 1.
“She’s a super nice filly,” said trainer Blake Heap, who handles the horses that ship to Del Mar from Ward’s eastern enclaves. “She acts classy, so hopefully she is. Wesley didn’t tell me how long he’d been planning this. He just told me that he’s sending me one. “
Dragic was a 1 ¾-length winner in her debut in April at Keeneland and subsequently put in a series of workouts there before traveling to Del Mar last weekend and putting in a four-furlong work in :50.20 on Monday.
“She’ll do whatever you want, but we didn’t want her to go too fast or too hard too close to the race,” Heap said.
The field from the rail: Madison’s Quarters (Mike Smith, 20-1), Dragic (Rafael Bejarano, 8-1), Bellafina (Flavien Prat, 7-2), Lady Lucy (Martin Garcia, 8-1), Dichotomy (Mario Gutierrez, 12-1), Summerland (Tyler Baze, 12-1), Stirred (Drayden Van Dyke, 5-1), Reflect (Kent Desormeaux, 5-1), Boujie Girl (Geovanni Franco, 6-1) and Del Mar May (Corey Nakatani, 9-2).
RIVER BOYNE FAVORED TO KEEP 2018 FLOW GOING IN LA JOLLA
Trainer Jeff Mullins will send out River Boyne with hopes of building on an already stellar 2018 campaign as the Irish-bred colt faces five rivals in Sunday’s Grade III $150,000 La Jolla Handicap.
A winner of three of four starts this year with earnings of $221,790 for owners Red Barons Barn LLC or Rancho Temescal, River Boyne was made the 7-5 favorite on oddsmaker Russ Hudak’s line issued Friday morning.
The La Jolla is the second of three races in Del Mar’s summer turf stakes series for three-year-olds. Four of the six La Jolla runners competed in the first leg of the series, the Oceanside Stakes on opening day, with Restrainedvengence finishing first followed by Calexman (third), Move Over (fifth) and Arawak (sixth).
A capacity field of 14 went in the one-mile Oceanside. With only six to go 1 1/16 miles on the Jimmy Durante Turf Course, a different scenario could unfold in the La Jolla.
Calexman led for three quarters in the Oceanside before being overtaken by 1 ¼ lengths.
“He’s got natural speed and he’s OK with being on the lead so long as you don’t have to burn him up on the lead,” said trainer Vladimir Cerin. “He went :22.80 in the first quarter the last time and then he got hooked at the quarter pole. If he can go a little bit slower, if the pace is a little bit kinder to him, it will be to his benefit.
“It’s a well-balanced field and I hope nobody will try and hook him early. But if they do, they’ll pay the price.”
The field from the rail: Move Over (Tyler Baze, 6-1), River Boyne (Flavien Prat, 7-5), Arawak (Rafael Bejarano, 5-1), Restrainedvengence (Evin Roman, 7-2), Calexman (Edwin Maldonado, 3-1) and Inscom (Martin Garcia, 12-1).
WHEN APPRENTICES GO HEAD-TO-HEAD: THE RESULTS ARE EVEN
Apprentice jockeys Assael Espinoza and Heriberto Figueroa have finished 1-2 in four races during the first 12 days of the meeting and the decisions have been split.
On July 19, Figueroa, on Latitude (8-1) prevailed by a nose.
On July 25, Espinoza returned the favor, by the same margin, on even-money Sea Glass.
On July 29, Espinoza won by a neck on 3-1 Danuska’s My Girl.
And Thursday, Figueroa evened things up with a head victory on Be Lifted Up.
Thanks to press box steward and statistician Jeff Furmansky.
CLOSERS – Flavien Prat, who enters the Friday card with a three-win lead over Drayden Van Dyke, and Joe Talamo will be in West Virginia on Saturday to ride in the $500,000 West Virginia Derby. Prat will be in the irons for Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert on Once On Whiskey, the recent Los Alamitos Derby winner who is the 5-2 morning line favorite for Mountaineer Park’s signature event. Talamo will be aboard 3-1 second choice Draft Pick, winner of the Affirmed at Santa Anita and runner-up in the Los Alamitos Derby for trainer Peter Eurton…Trainer Richard Mandella worked 4-year-old filly Rubilinda 3 furlongs in :36.40 Thursday. The daughter of Frankel, who finished sixth in the Matriarch when shipped here last fall by Chad Brown, is owned by Don Alberto Stable, that also owns Unique Bella, and will stay in the west under Mandella’s care with a likely first start in the fall at Santa Anita… Selected works from 160 officially timed Friday morning: Bitte (4f, :47.20), Catalina Cruiser (4f, :48.00), Cistron (4f, :48.20), Omaha Beach (4f, :47.20), City of Light (5f, :59.20), Pavel (5f, 1:01.60), Skye Diamonds (5f, 1:00.60).
Winning Favorites Report
(Current Through Thursday, August 2, 2018 Inclusive)
Winning favorites -- 39 out of 104 -- 37.50%
Winning favorites on dirt -- 32 out of 65 -- 49.23%
Winning favorites on turf -- 7 out of 39 -- 17.95%
Winning odds-on favorites -- 12 out of 16 -- 75.00%
In-the-Money favorites -- 72 out of 104 -- 69.23%
In-the-Money odds-on favorites -- 16 out of 16 -- 100.00%