Listenupshance Ownership Group © Benoit Photo
LARGE GROUP GREETS LISTENUPSHANCE AFTER BING CROSBY WIN
If you want evidence of ‘new blood’ in the horseracing industry, look no further than the winner’s circle at Del Mar following Saturday’s 81st running of the G1 Bing Crosby. No sooner had the winner Listenupshance crossed the finish line than dozens upon dozens of partial owners of the dark bay or brown gelding began filing into the winner’s enclosure.
It’s the product of rap superstars Lil Wayne, Lil Yachty, and Rauw Alejandro. Run Fast Racing was formed in April of 2025 and the growing stable currently has 26 horses. For $100 they offer fractional ownership in their stable. They won twice Opening Weekend at Del Mar then hit the jackpot Saturday in the $400,000 Bing Crosby.
Doug O’Neill, trainer of Listenupshance, said he was approached by a person who worked with Run Fast Racing’s founder Adam Kluger.
“He told me of this young guy from New York who loves racing and wants to try to help racing,” O’Neill recalls. “So, I met Adam and it’s been a lot of fun. I’ve got to meet Lil Yachty and some of these other celebrities. In this business sometimes we get stressed out. Adam makes it sound like we’re all going to the moon. It’s all uphill, I love it.”
Not sure about going to the moon but they punched their ticket to the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Keeneland in the fall with Listenupshance’s win in the Bing Crosby. The 4-year-old son of Shancelot pressed the pace down the backstretch, pounced in the turn and hit the front at the top of the lane. He opened up coming down the stretch, then held off a furious charge by Maximum Bourbon to win by a nose.
"Emisael (Jaramillo) did such a great job of getting a clean break,” O’Neill noted after the race. “He was laying in a perfect spot but then I saw 21 and change and I thought maybe we're in trouble. I just knew this horse was a warrior. I knew if he was anywhere near at the head of the lane, he'd be near at the wire. I'm just over the moon."
It was Jaramillo’s first stakes win at Del Mar. The 49-year-old jockey moved his tack from Florida to Southern California at the beginning of the year.
O’Neill’s assistant Leondro Mora reports Sunday morning that Listenupshance came out of the race ‘good’ and soon they will sit down and map out a plan for getting him to the Breeders’ Cup.
There were two other stakes on the Saturday card at Del Mar.
Baltic Fire won the $100,000 Osunitas Stakes for fillies and mares going one mile on the grass. She never got over from his outside post so was widest throughout the race, sat midpack down the backstretch, then started his move at the top of the far turn. She hit the front at the top of the lane, pulled clear but then had to hold off a surging Public Assembly to win by a neck.
The 5-year-old daughter of Flameaway was supposed to go in a second level allowance race earlier in the week but couldn’t get in. Trainer Jeff Mullins wanted to get a race into her so he entered her in the Osunitas as an afterthought.
“We didn’t expect to go in that spot,” Mullins claims. “So, I don’t know what we’re going to do with her now.”
The middle leg of the stakes tripleheader Saturday at Del Mar was the $100,000 Daisycutter Handicap, a five-furlong turf sprint for fillies and mares. Amorita nailed Can’t Sleep on the wire to win by a nose.
“Oh, I knew she would win easy,” trainer Richard Mandella joked. “I was holding my breath. I watched the replay. One time I’d think I won. The next time I’d think I didn’t.”
Mandella says Amorita came out of the race ‘great.’ As far as what’s next for the daughter of Liam’s Map.
“I haven’t figured it out yet,” Mandella states. “We’re just going to enjoy this one.”
KNIGHTSBRIDGE MAY BE HEADED TO PACIFIC CLASSIC
You can add another candidate to the list of big horses eyeing a run in this year’s G1, $1 million Pacific Classic at Del Mar. The Daily Racing Form’s David Grening is reporting Sunday that trainer Bill Mott intends to nominate Knightsbridge for the 36th running of Del Mar’s marquee race on August 22.
Knightsbridge routed for the first time last week and won by 10 ¼ lengths in the G3 Monmouth Cup on the undercard of the G1 Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park. It was his first time going around two turns and his first race longer than a mile. He posted the year’s highest Beyer Speed Figure of 122.
Knightsbridge is a 5-year-old son of Nyquist out of the Bernardini mare Tyburn Brook. He broke his maiden at Churchill Downs in 2023 but it all came together for him late last year when he followed an allowance race win at Aqueduct with an eye-catching performance in the G3 Mr. Prospector at Gulfstream Park.
He would rattle off two more wins, the G3 Fred Hooper and the G3 Gulfstream Park Mile, before the four-race win streak was snapped in the G1 Churchill Downs Stakes on Derby Day. He followed with a good second to Nysos in the G1 Met Mile at Saratoga on Belmont Stakes Day before crushing it at Monmouth Park.
The Pacific Classic could be a rematch for Knightsbridge and Nysos, who trainer Bob Baffert says is being pointed to the big race. It may also include Forged Steel, winner of the Hollywood Gold Cup, and the Japanese colt, Finger, a son of Gun Runner who won the first two legs of the Japan Triple Crown earlier this year.
G1 CLEMENT L. HIRSCH HIGHLIGHTS NEXT WEEK’S STAKES ACTION
Four more stakes races highlight next week’s racing at Del Mar including the G1 Clement L. Hirsch on Saturday. The other three stakes races are restricted to Cal-breds including the meet’s first juvenile stakes race of the meet, the $100,000 C.T.B.A. Stakes on Sunday.
The stakes action begins on Friday with the $150,000 Real Good Deal Stakes. Cal-bred 3-year-olds will be going seven furlongs on the main track. A field of 11 3-year-olds is entered in the race including Reddam Racing’s Pavlovian, who made a little noise on the Kentucky Derby trail this year.
There are also a pair of stakes winners eyeing the Real Good Deal. Ocean Bear won last year’s Golden State Juvenile Stakes on the Friday Breeders’ Cup undercard at Del Mar and Fionello, who won the $125,000 Echo Eddie at Santa Anita in April.
Sunday is a stakes doubleheader starting with the $150,000 California Dreamin’. Fourteen Cal-bred 3-year-olds and up have been nominated for the mile and a sixteenth test on the grass including Flyover, winner of both the Sensational Star and the Crystal Water at Santa Anita.
The feature on Saturday is the G1, $400,000 Clement L. Hirsch, a ‘Win and You’re In’ for the Breeders’ Cup Distaff. Thirteen fillies and mares are nominated for the mile and a sixteenth affair. Seismic Beauty is expected back to defend her crown against possible contenders G1 Gamely winner Thought Process and G2 Santa Margarita winner Om N Joy.
The stakes action wraps-up Sunday with the 73rd running of the California Thoroughbred Breeders Association Stakes. It’s the first of the parade of 10 Juvenile stakes races set for this summer at Del Mar. Nine fillies have been nominated. All but two broke their maidens first out and one, Free Closer, shipped back to Kentucky and ran fifth in the $225,000 Debutante at Churchill Downs.
Week 3 of the Del Mar summer meet begins Thursday. First post daily is 2 p.m.
JOEL ROSARIO BRINGS HALL OF FAME CREDENTIALS TO DEL MAR
Del Mar has seen its share of Hall of Fame riders over the years. From the early days of Bill Shoemaker to Laffit Pincay, Jr. and Chris McCarron to present day with Mike Smith. Many Hall of Famers have called the seaside oval home. Last year Del Mar had three on the jockey’s roster: Smith, Victor Espinoza and Kent Desormeaux.
Now you can add a fourth with the return of Joel Rosario. The 41-year-old rider from the Dominican Republic was inducted into Racing’s Hall of Fame in 2024, the first year of his eligibility. He returns to So Cal with 3,838 career wins and over $350 million in earnings.
“I have family here,” Rosario lists as one his reasons for returning to Southern California. “I like California and this is where I started so I thought it was the right decision to come back here.”
Rosario once dominated the Southern California racing circuit, winning three consecutive summer riding titles at Del Mar in 2009, 2010, and 2011, the first to win more than two straight riding crowns since Shoemaker in 1954.
But then in 2012 he packed up his tack and moved East looking for new regions to conquer. Since then he’s won a Kentucky Derby with Orb in 2013, has collected 16 Breeders’ Cup wins, two Belmont Stakes and was awarded the Eclipse Award for Top Jockey in 2021.
Rosario calls the Derby win the highlight of a career packed with highlights.
“That was a big moment for me,” Rosario recalls. “Also, I won the Caribbean Classic which is a race with horses from every Caribbean country. I had the opportunity to represent the Dominican Republic. It was very special.
“A lot of races,” Rosario continues. “The Breeders’ Cup. A lot of memories.”
He would return to Del Mar on big occasions, such as 2018 when he won the Pacific Classic aboard Accelerate or 2021 when he won the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Del Mar with Knicks Go.
“Every race is great to win,” Rosario insists. “It doesn’t matter the race. Sometimes you have those races that are not easy to win for anybody, the jock or the owner or trainer.”
Like many who grew up in the Caribbean, Rosario was always around horses.
“No Thoroughbreds,” he’s quick to point out. “I would ride the farm horses when I was a kid. I would ride the horse to the grocery store because on the farm you would have one house here and the next one far away. The store was a little far so I took the horse.”
He has always loved horses but a second passion nearly steered him in a different direction.
“I wanted to be a baseball player,” Rosario insists. “I was a catcher and played third base. Any position but first base because I was too short. And pitching.”
Fortunately for the rest of the racing community, Rosario’s brother stepped in.
“My brother took me to the jockey school in the Dominican Republic,” Rosario says, “and that’s when I got started.”
Rosario is excited about this new chapter in his storied career, one in which he is very grateful.
“I love the horses and the people,” Rosario claims. “It’s a blessing just to be in this industry and just to be here at this kind of place. I’ve been blessed.”
COOLING OUT: Bartholdy, winner of Race 8 Saturday at Del Mar, was claimed for $100,000 by trainer Jose D’Angelo. It’s the third highest claim all-time at Del Mar, tied with 18 other $100,000 claims. Last year, Mr. A.P. was claimed for $150,000 and in 2005 Smoocher was claimed for $125,000…Om N Joy worked four furlongs in :51.20 on Del Mar’s main track Sunday. The winner of last year’s G3 Torrey Pines Stakes at Del Mar is gearing up for a run in next Saturday’s G1 Clement L. Hirsch…Trainer Richard Baltas had his two stars out on the work tab Sunday morning. Ag Bullet went five furlongs in 1:01.80. She’s being pointed to a defense of her title in the G2 Ladies Turf Sprint at Kentucky Downs. Sweet Azteca also worked five furlongs in 1:01.80. She’s preparing for a defense of her crown in the G3 Rancho Bernardo at Del Mar on August 16…Notable works for Sunday: Dirt – Hejazi (3f, :36.40); Full Serrano (4f, :47.80); Vodka Vodka (4f, :48.80); El Potente (5f, 1:02.60); Inshallah (5f, 1:01.80); Majestic Oops (5f, 1:00.40); Ocean Bear (5f, 1:01.60), and Pavlovian (5f, 1:03.80). Turf – Kensington Lane (4f, :54.80), and Unconquerable Keen (4f, :51.40).