By Hank Wesch
CROSBY WINNER WILD DUDE TO GO FOR SPRINT SWEEP IN O’BRIEN
Hall of Fame trainer Jerry Hollendorfer said Wednesday morning that Sunday’s Grade I $300,000 Bing Crosby stakes winner Wild Dude “came out of it as well as a horse could come out of a race.”
Next up on the agenda for the 5-year-old Florida-bred son of Wildcat Heir is the Grade II $250,000 Pat O’Brien Stakes on Pacific Classic Day, Saturday, August 22. A victory in the O’Brien would make Wild Dude the first to sweep Del Mar’s sprint stakes series since Zensational in 2009. Kela (2004) and Disturbingthepeace (2002) also claimed both titles in the same summer season in the years since 2000.
The Bing Crosby was a “Win And You’re In” qualifier for the $1.5 million Breeders’ Cup Sprint on October 31 at Keeneland in Kentucky which will prove beneficial should Wild Dude’s campaign success eventually take him there. But, in his case, it’s not a free pass.
Wild Dude, owned by Hollendorfer and Green Smith, Jr. of Bryan, Texas, was not made eligible for the Breeders’ Cup program as a “Horse of Racing Age” via a $50,000 payment that was due on July 15. As a result, a $100,000 Horse of Racing Age fee would be required prior to the October 19 Breeders’ Cup pre-entry deadline to make him eligible for the event.
After that, the “Win and You’re In” benefit from the Crosby would then kick in in the form of a waiver of the $30,000 race entry fee and a $10,000 travel stipend for shipping the horse from California to Kentucky.
“We’ll go race by race and see what happens,” Hollendorfer said.
The victory was the first in a Grade I race in North America for jockey Flavien Prat, who is spending his first summer as a regular at Del Mar.
Ron Ellis, trainer of runner-up Masochistic, said that the 2-5 Crosby favorite, beaten 1 ¼ lengths, came out of the race fine. “The track was a little too deep for him,” Ellis said. “Other than that, everything was cool. The winner ran a very good race.”
Masochistic will train here for an anticipated next start in the $300,000 Grade II Santa Anita Sprint Championship on October 3 at Santa Anita in keeping with a schedule Ellis has mapped out with the Breeders’ Cup Sprint the goal.
AMERICAN PHAROAH TODAY
The Triple Crown champion departed Del Mar early Wednesday morning for Ontario Airport where he boarded a specially equipped Boing 727 nicknamed “Air Horse One” for a flight to Atlantic City, New Jersey preparatory to running in the $1 million Haskell Invitational on Sunday at Monmouth Park.
Owner Ahmed Zayat, who has been at Del Mar, was scheduled to travel back to his New Jersey residence on Wednesday as well. Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert will be bound for Monmouth Park on Saturday.
American Pharoah worked a half-mile in :48.80 seconds Tuesday morning at Del Mar. Del Mar’s clockers timed American Pharoah, who was ridden by Martin Garcia, in splits of :12:60, :25.20 and :37.00 for the first three-eighths and had him galloping out five furlongs in 1:01.00 and 1:14.40 for six.
American Pharoah is scheduled to return to Del Mar either Monday or Tuesday.
USUAL SUSPECTS CAN BE FOUND ON LEADER BOARDS
The jockey and trainer leader boards took on a familiar look at the end of Week Two of the meeting with perennial contenders making progress in the win columns.
Del Mar newcomer Flavien Prat followed up six wins in the first four days of the meeting with three more in five racing days last week. But Prat was joined at the top of the standings by Joe Talamo, who had four wins. Three-time defending champion Rafael Bejarano moved to within one of the top via a four-win week. Tied with Bejarano with eight victories was Del Mar first-timer Santiago Gonzalez, who added three to his first-week total of five.
Prat, who notched his first North American Grade I victory in Sunday’s Bing Crosby Stakes, has three stakes wins, one more than Mike Smith and Bejarano.
The 2015 meeting’s training co-champions, Peter Miller and Jerry Hollendorfer, are (surprise) tied at six entering the third week of the meeting. Miller saddled two winners in Week 2 and Hollendorfer three. Phil D’Amato and Doug O’Neill made their presence known with three wins to move into a tie with Jeff Mullins for third with four victories in the first nine days.
WEEKEND STAKES HIGHLIGHTED BY CLEMENT L. HIRSCH
Two-time Eclipse Award winner Beholder is scheduled to make her first Del Mar appearance in nearly two years in Saturday’s $300,000 Grade I Clement L Hirsch Stakes, the highlight of three stakes races on the weekend.
Trained by Hall of Famer Richard Mandella and ridden by Gary Stevens, Beholder was voted Eclipse Awards as top 2-year-old filly of 2012 and 3-year-old filly of 2013, clinching them with triumphs in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies and Breeders’ Cup Distaff in the respective years.
The 5-year-old daughter of Henny Hughes is two-for-two in 2015 with wins in the Santa Lucia and Adoration Stakes at Santa Anita in April and June. Beholder, owned by Spendthrift Farm LLC, last raced Del Mar in September of 2013, winning the Torrey Pines Stakes. She was runner-up to Executiveprivilege in the 2012 Del Mar Debutante.
Nine horses were entered Wednesday morning. In alphabetical order they are: Beholder, Gusto Dolce, Honey Ride, Legacy, My Monet, My Sweet Addiction, Thegirlinthatsong, Warren’s Veneda and Yahilwa.
The Hirsch is the middle of three stakes over the weekend. The $100,000 CTBA Stakes will be contested Friday and the $200,000 Real Good Deal on Sunday.
CLOSERS – Ship And Win eligible horses on Wednesday’s card are: Gold Treasure (1st, Jerry Hollendorfer, trainer), Temperature Runnin (6th, Richard Baltas) and Mighty Brown (8th, Mike Stidham) … Through the first nine days of racing there have been three victories by Ship And Win horses. The program has paid out $36,000 in starting allowances and $90,816 in performance bonuses … Selected works from 338 officially timed over the last three days: Monday – Gimme Da Lute (5f, :58.80), Dortmund (4f, :48.60), Jade Princess (5f, 1:00.80); Tuesday – American Pharoah (4f, :48.80), Beholder (4f, :47.80), Thegirlinthatsong (4f, :48.60), Hard Aces (5f, 1:01.00), Stellar Wind (5f, 1:02.20), Midnight Storm (5f, 1:02.00), Pain and Misery (5f, 1:01.80), Imperative (7f, 1:27.00); Wednesday – Bal a Bali (7f, 1:28.80), Silentio (5f, 1:02.50), Customer Base (5f, 1:03.00), Texas Ryano (4f, :47.80), Winning Prize (3f, :38.60), Prize Exhibit (3f, :37.00), Circling (3f, :38.80), Diamond Bachelor (5f, 1:04.20) … Jockey Edwin Maldonado, approaching 1,000 career wins, has 994 entering Wednesday’s program with two mounts on the card.
DEL MAR STATISTICS
| Jockey Standings | ||||||
| (Current Through Sunday, July 26, 2015 Inclusive) | ||||||
| Jockey | Mts | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Win% | Money Won |
| Flavien Prat | 51 | 9 | 5 | 10 | 18% | $746,990 |
| Joseph Talamo | 48 | 9 | 2 | 2 | 19% | $482,980 |
| Rafael Bejarano | 45 | 8 | 7 | 5 | 18% | $509,752 |
| Santiago Gonzalez | 34 | 8 | 2 | 4 | 24% | $424,104 |
| Tyler Baze | 53 | 6 | 9 | 9 | 11% | $467,858 |
| Mario Gutierrez | 26 | 6 | 4 | 0 | 23% | $257,636 |
| Mike Smith | 28 | 5 | 6 | 4 | 18% | $587,030 |
| Kent Desormeaux | 30 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 13% | $223,090 |
| Drayden Van Dyke | 24 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 17% | $174,734 |
| Fernando Perez | 34 | 3 | 8 | 3 | 9% | $165,206 |
| Trainer Standings | ||||||
| (Current Through Sunday, July 26, 2015 Inclusive) | ||||||
| Trainer | Sts | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Win% | Money Won |
| Peter Miller | 39 | 6 | 3 | 5 | 15% | $376,526 |
| Jerry Hollendorfer | 23 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 26% | $462,492 |
| Philip D'Amato | 14 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 29% | $257,740 |
| John W. Sadler | 14 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 29% | $83,780 |
| Jeff Mullins | 11 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 36% | $395,642 |
| Doug F. O'Neill | 26 | 3 | 6 | 3 | 12% | $211,390 |
| Richard Baltas | 11 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 27% | $182,300 |
| Richard E. Mandella | 13 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 23% | $371,680 |
| James M. Cassidy | 18 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 17% | $245,790 |
| Mike Puype | 19 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 16% | $165,830 |
| Winning Favorites Report | |||
| (Current Through Sunday, July 26, 2015 Inclusive) | |||
| Winning favorites | 26 | 82 | 31.71% |
| Winning favorites on dirt | 20 | 60 | 33.33% |
| Winning favorites on turf | 6 | 22 | 27.27% |
| Winning odds-on favorites | 1 | 6 | 16.67% |
| In-the-Money favorites | 50 | 82 | 60.98% |
| In-the-Money odds-on favorites | 5 | 6 | 83.33% |
Contact: Dan Smith 858-792-4226/Hank Wesch 858-755-1141 ext. 3793