Subsanador © Benoit Photo
SUBSANADOR TO WORK BETWEEN RACES AT DEL MAR TODAY
A rare treat for race fans in attendance at Del Mar Thursday: One of the possible participants in this year’s Pacific Classic will put in an official work between races six and seven.
Subsanador, a strapping Argentine-bred, will work one mile on the main track for Hall of Fame trainer Richard Mandella. Probable post time for Race 6 is 4:30 and Race 7, which is on the turf, is supposed to go off at 5 p.m. Subsanador will work sometime in between.
“I got behind and I couldn’t make the (G2) San Diego (Handicap) for a prep for the Classic,” Mandella explains. “I want something similar to race conditions for him. Not just work him but put him under some stress. We want to go back in the Classic at a mile and a quarter. With him too fresh I think it will help.”
By running midday instead of the morning, Subsanador will be working under more race-like conditions.
“Just simulate a race a little bit,” Mandella says. “With the crowd, he’ll know. He’ll think he’s running. He’ll think he won.”
This exercise is not new to horse training, though this approach hasn’t been used in recent years.
“In the old days we used to do it,” notes Mandella who is known to use ‘old school’ training techniques and unique work regiments. He’s one of a handful of trainers who still give ‘blowouts’ to his horses. That’s a 3-furlong work a couple of days before a race.
Jockey Mike Smith will ride a horse for Mandella in Race 6 and afterward will walk over to the 7/8’s gap where he will rendezvous with Subsanador and climb aboard for the workout. Smith is not riding in Race 7.
Subsanador is a 7-year-old chestnut who has won nine races over his career with earnings of $1,024,824. He came to the U.S. in 2023 and was runner-up to Newgate in the 2024 Santa Anita Handicap. He would go on to win the G3 Iselin at Monmouth Park that summer and the inaugural running of the G1 California Crown at Santa Anita in the fall of 2024. That would be his last race until March of this year. His most recent outing was a last place finish in the G2 Hollywood Gold Cup on Memorial Day when he reportedly lost a shoe and was eased in the lane.
TWO DEL MAR ALUMNI TO BE INDUCTED INTO RACING’S HALL OF FAME
Two of the three contemporary inductees to the Racing Hall of Fame this year have ties to Del Mar. The late trainer John Shirreffs and the brilliant speedster Kona Gold both put together Hall of Fame careers in California.
John Shirreffs was one of the more popular trainers on the Southern California circuit, both on and off the track. He won the 2005 Kentucky Derby with Giacomo but it was his work with Zenyatta that will forever stamp his name in the minds of horse fans worldwide. He handled her through two Breeders’ Cup wins, including one over the boys in the 2009 Classic. He was her conditioner for her entire career including the 19 consecutive races she won to start her career, a streak snapped in the 2010 Breeders’ Cup Classic when her customary late rally fell a neck short to Blame.
It was her only defeat in 20 career starts and deprived her of the record at the time for consecutive victories. Through it all, Shirreffs was the quiet administrator and ambassador. His barn thrived before Zenyatta’s arrival and after her departure. And while many of his horses made it to the winner’s circle, Shirreffs seldom joined them, choosing instead to stand on the sideline because he felt the horses and owners deserved the spotlight, not the trainer.
He won 596 races during his career and earnings of $58,581,916. At Del Mar he had 97 victories and $8,939,517 in earnings. Shirreffs passed away last February at the age of 80. His wife, Dottie, is expected to give the induction speech tomorrow. Odds-on there won’t be a dry eye in the place.
Kona Gold was a monster on the racetrack, dominating the sprint division for over a year. The gelded son of Java Gold was the Eclipse Award champion sprinter in 2000. He won seven straight races from April of 2000 until July of 2001 that included the 2000 Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Churchill Downs and back-to-back wins of the G2 Bing Crosby Breeders’ Cup Handicap at Del Mar.
Kona Gold broke his maiden at Del Mar in 1998 and would win five of his six races at the seaside oval. He compiled over $1 million in earnings in 2000 alone and finished his career with a record of 30-14-7-2 and earnings of $2,293,384.
Both Shirreffs and Kona Gold will be honored in the contemporary category of the Hall of Fame with the late trainer Christophe Clement.
This year’s inductees into the Racing Hall of Fame also include, from the Historic Review category, racehorses Gulch and Mongo and trainer David Whiteley. And from the Pillars of the Turf category are Prince Khalid bin Abdullah, Dr. Robert Copelan, Seth W. Hancock, G. Watts Humphrey, Jr. and Joseph E. Widener.
The Induction Ceremony will be held at the Hall in Saratoga Springs, New York Friday morning.
HERNANDEZ, O’NEILL CONTINUE TO LEAD STANDINGS AT DEL MAR
Juan Hernandez seized sole possession of first place in the Del Mar jockey standings last week, winning three races on Thursday and then holding on as Joel Rosario made a big move over the weekend.
Rosario won eight races last week, posting hat tricks on Friday and Sunday. Of his 11 wins this summer, four have come with trainer John Sadler.
“He’s a top rider and he’s come back home,” Sadler says. “He’ll be battling it out for leading jockey.”
Sadler and Rosario teamed up a lot when Rosario rode at Del Mar back in the 2000’s
“We won titles here at Del Mar previously,” Sadler notes. “I was leading trainer and he was leading rider so it’s a longtime partnership.”
The two topped the trainer and jockey standings in the summer of 2009 at Del Mar, the first of three consecutive riding titles for Rosario at the seaside oval. But for now Rosario trails Hernandez by two wins.
Antonio Fresu won four races last week and sits in third place with 10 victories followed closely by Emisael Jaramillo and Umberto Rispoli with nine and Kazushi Kimura with eight. Armando Ayuso and Hector Berrios (6), Tyler Baze (5) and Kyle Frey (4) round out the Top Ten after three weeks of racing.
Hernandez won his second stakes race of the meet when he guided Free Closer to victory in the C.T.B.A Stakes on Sunday. He’s tied with Rispoli and Frey for the most stakes wins by a jockey this summer. Rosario posted his first stakes win of the meet with He’s a Knockout in the Real Good Deal Stakes; Tiago Pereira won the California Dreamin’ with On the Whim, and Micah Husbands shipped in from Florida to win the G1 Clement L. Hirsch on Eunomia.
Meanwhile, Doug O’Neill padded his lead in the trainers’ standings with three more wins last week. He’s up to 12 victories, five more than Sadler, his closest rival. Phil D’Amato and Mark Glatt are next with six. Michael McCarthy and Jeff Mullins sit together with five wins followed by George Papaprodromou and Craig Lewis with four. Bob Baffert leads a group of five trainers to round out the trainers’ Top Ten with three wins.
McCarthy, Carla Gaines, Dean Pederson and Saffie Joseph were the stakes winning trainers last week. McCarthy’s win with Free Closer was his second stakes win of the meet. He joins Jeff Mullins and Philip D’Amato in the exclusive group of trainers with two stakes victories this summer at Del Mar.
Paul Reddam leads the owners’ standings with five wins and $360,200 in earnings. Harris Farms and Hronis Racing are next with three wins. Great Friends Stables and Run Fast Racing are next in earnings with $265,800.
Field sizes are holding steady at the summer meet at an average of 8.79 per race, the exact same average field size at Del Mar at this time last year. The AFS is constant across the board. Field size for dirt, 8.72; for turf, 8.86, and for stakes races, 8.18.
Forty-nine different trainers have won at Del Mar this summer.
We may have seen a turn in the trend of winning race favorites this year at Del Mar. After another rough week, the percentage of winning favorites dropped to 17.53% going into Sunday’s races. Only 17 favorites out of 97 races had made it to the winner’s circle. But on Sunday, five favorites scored including in the last four races of the card, raising the percentage up to 21.50%, still significantly lower than the national average of 33-35%.
Racing resumes Thursday and runs every day through Sunday. First post is 2 p.m.
NET PAR, EARLY ENCORE SQUARE OFF IN FRIDAY’S GRADUATION STAKES
The stakes action at Del Mar kicks off Friday with the $100,000 Graduation Stakes, a 5 ½ furlong sprint for Cal-bred 2-year-olds. Seven will line up. All are last-out winners, all but one by open lengths.
Net Par won at Del Mar on opening weekend, destroying a group of Cal-bred maidens by 7 ¾ lengths. It was the second career start for the son of Pavel.
“In the first start he got bumped, stumbled and lost a shoe,” trainer Antonio Garcia says. “It kind of caught him off guard but (Armando) Ayuso did the right thing and kept him in there.”
Net Par would finish third that day but then bounce back in a big way a month later.
“He’s always shown a little bit of talent,” Garcia states. “You know the horse is decent when Juan (Hernandez) calls you right after the race and tells you ‘I want to ride the horse back.’ He’s a little Cal-bred 2-year-old that can go a long way.”
Six of the runners broke their maidens in wire-to-wire fashion, including Early Encore, an impressive winner first time out, winning by 6 ¾ lengths.
“He’s very precocious,” trainer John Sadler says. “He won one of the early 2-year-old races. Being a state-bred it made sense to save him for down here since there are two races here.”
In addition to the Graduation Stakes there’s the I’m Smokin Stakes on closing day, September 7.
Early Encore is by the highly anticipated freshman sire Early Voting, the 2022 Preakness Stakes winner. He’ll be ridden by jockey Joel Rosario who has teamed up with Sadler to win four races at the meet.
King of Kameha is another horse who won impressively last out. In his third career start the son of McKinzie pounded a group of Cal-bred maidens by 4 ¾ lengths at Santa Anita in June.
“The first few races he ran he was very green,” trainer Steve Knapp notes. “The last race when he won was much more professional. He started to figure out what was going on. He’s training well and we’re coming into the race good.”
King Kameha is the only one in the field who won coming from off the pace.
Of the other runners, Prime Splash won by four lengths; Jonny’s Cap won by 7 ½ lengths, and Prime Listing won by 4 ¾ lengths. Only Fumano’s Fire won a close one, winning his fourth career start by three-quarters of a length.
The 75th running of the Graduation Stakes, a race won by California Chrome in 2013, is Race 7 on the Friday card. Probable post time is 5 p.m.
Here’s the field from the rail with the jockeys and morning line odds: Phone Booth (SCRATCHED); Net Par (Juan Hernandez, 3-1); Prime Splash (Francisco Monroy, 20-1); Early Encore (6/5); Jonny’s Cap (Esimael Jaramillo, 10-1); King Kameha (Tiago Pereira, 7/2); Fumano’s Fire (Christobal Herrera, 15-1), and Prime Listing (Tyler Base, 8-1).
COOLING OUT: Grand Slam Smile, the champion Cal-bred who has ventured into open company of late, will return to Cal-bred company in her next race. That’s according to trainer Sean McCarthy who says the daughter of Smiling Tiger is doing very good and is being pointed to the $150,000 Solana Beach August 15. Grand Slam Smile’s been on a steady worktab since she ran fifth in the G2 Great Lady M at Los Alamitos on July 4th…Dual Breeder’s Cup winner at Del Mar last fall, trainer Jose F. D’Angelo has a live string of horses stabled at Del Mar this summer. The Florida-based trainer is running four horses this weekend at the seaside oval including Vincey Girl in Saturday’s G2 Yellow Ribbon…Notable works this week: Dirt – Monday - Big City Lights (4f, :46.00); Flyover (4f, :49.00); Hey Nay Nay (4f, :48.00); Imagination (4f, :47.60), and Steak Fries (4f, :49.60). Thursday – Nevada Beach (7f, 1:24.60). Turf – Thursday – El Potente (5f, 1:02.80), and Atitlan (6f, 1:13.40). 122 horses put in official works at Del Mar Thursday morning: 108 on the dirt and 14 on the turf.