By Jim Charvat
IT’S OPENING DAY AT DEL MAR FOR THE 10TH BING CROSBY SEASON
Back in 2013 the Hollywood Park Land Company shut down Hollywood Park, selling the land to LA Rams owner Stan Kroenke who used it to build SoFi Stadium. The sale left a series of racing dates open in Southern California so the CHRB came to Del Mar and requested they take some of the available fall dates and the Bing Crosby Season at Del Mar was born.
Ten years later the meet is going strong with the emergence of the popular Turf Festival. Today is Opening Day of the session, 13 days of racing over the next four weeks.
Anyone who has been to Del Mar this time of year will tell you it’s a different atmosphere from the hustle and bustle of the summer meet. It’s the end of year, the holidays are approaching and while the horsemen and women are just as serious about their racing, it’s a more relaxed setting.
“It is the end of a long year so you do see horses get turned out,” says Del Mar racing secretary David Jerkens. “But overall I expect things to go like they did last year and I thought last year’s meet went very well in terms of quality of racing.
“The sheer number of horses on the property is a lot less than the summer,” Jerkens continues. “Generally when we’ve been successful in the fall a lot of it is determined by the weather and the strength of our Turf Festival.”
The Turf Festival spans two weeks starting Thanksgiving Day with the G3 Red Carpet and concluding December 3 with the G1 Matriarch. With cold weather descending on many of the eastern tracks, turf racing has been shelved for the year, leaving Del Mar as one of the few tracks still running on the grass. It tends to lure some of the top trainers from back east.
“Motion, Casse, Ward. Those are pretty good names to have,” Jerkens notes. “I see (Chad Brown) every winter. My first recruiting trip is to South Florida. In my conversations with him he does plan on our fall meet stakes.”
Then there’s the usual cast of trainers from the Southern California circuit at Del Mar this fall. Many have already shipped in with their runners with plans of staying the four weeks in beautiful Del Mar. Several others will make the commute from Santa Anita, arriving on days they have horses running, shipping in their horses in the days leading up to the race.
“For example, Bob Baffert will occupy half a dozen stalls here in the fall and just ship in and out,” Jerkens says. “But Phil D’Amato will have a full barn. Peter Miller, Doug O’Neill, Mandella, Shirreffs, the usual individuals will move down here.”
The jockey colony also will be bolstered by riders coming here in search of big money purses. With there being a bit of lull before Gulfstream Park’s Championship Meet in December, a couple of the East Coast jockeys are coming to Del Mar this month.
“Flavien Prat will be back and John Velazquez,” Jerkens says. “Definitely Prat for the whole meet. I believe Velazquez, too.”
Racing will be conducted on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Post time is 12:30 p.m. with one exception. There will be racing on Thanksgiving Day and the first post that day is 11:00 a.m.
DEL MAR’S LEADING RIDER LOOKS TO STAY ON TOP THIS FALL
So what does Del Mar’s leading rider, Juan Hernandez do on his day off?
He plays golf.
Earlier this week, Hernandez and a group of fellow jockeys that included Ricky Gonzalez, Diego Herrera and Abel Cedillo hit the links at Black Gold Golf Club in Yorba Linda. How did he do?
“Not very good this time,” Hernandez admits.
It may be one of the few times his colleagues get the best of him. Hernandez has won three of the last four riding titles at Del Mar and in the one he lost to Flavien Prat last fall, he finished second.
Hernandez went up to Santa Anita following Del Mar’s last summer meet and captured his third straight riding title there. Always modest about achievements, the 31-year old rider attributes much of his success to the opportunities given to him by the owners and trainers, good horses and getting lucky.
“I’m really excited to be back over there,” Hernandez says of Del Mar. “I had a really nice season this summer so I’m excited to get back and do well again.
“I like the track,” he continues. “It’s really nice. Both surfaces, dirt and turf. But what I like most is the people there. We always have a really nice crowd at the races. People at Del Mar love racing and they support us a lot so I’m really excited to get back there and win races again.”
Like many of the riders, Hernandez will commute down to Del Mar for the races this fall which means he’s separated from the family on the weekends.
“I go by myself,” he says. “They have to stay here (in Glendora, just down the 210 from Santa Anita) because my kids have school. So, I get to Del Mar on Fridays, get a hotel and then stay there Friday and Saturdays and come back on Sundays. I have to work horses at Santa Anita on Mondays.”
Hernandez has never shied away from hard work dating back to his youth in his hometown of Vera Cruz, Mexico. His father got him started riding and from their he learned his craft from the top riders around him.
“When I was starting back in Mexico City there were a couple of really good riders,” he says. “They were in my corner. We had the same valet. They taught me a lot. I always asked them a lot of questions and when I did something wrong they always corrected me and gave me a lot of good tips.
“When I moved my tack here I always watched the racing from all over the USA,” Hernandez continues, “and I watched the good riders. The one guy I watched a lot was David Flores. I liked his style. He never moved too much in the saddle. He didn’t try to do much. He was just really smooth all the time so I was trying to copy him when I got here. I like to learn and improve all the time. I think I’m growing a lot and you can never stop learning.”
Hernandez’ chief rival, Flavien Prat, will be back for the Bing Crosby Season as well as Hall of Fame rider John Velazquez, making the Del Mar jockey colony a formidable group.
“It’s always tough here,” Hernandez notes. “I like to challenge myself. I like the competition. I’m really excited to ride with the new guys who are coming. Just looking to be competitive. Hopefully, we can get a good start and have a good meet.”
Hernandez is fresh off of his fourth Breeders’ Cup. He had nine mounts. His best finish was runner-up in the Juvenile aboard Muth.
“I had a lot of fun,” he says. “I rode some good horses. I got one good second. I was hoping to win a Breeders’ Cup (race) this year. I have no excuses for my horses, they all ran really good. They gave me everything that they had and I had fun and I got more experience.”
More experience generally leads to improved performance. Just what the jockeys at Del Mar don’t need to hear about Juan Hernandez.
KATHRYN CROSBY: STERN TURF TEST FOR FILLY AND MARES SATURDAY
It’s the track. Not the weather, or the beach or the restaurants (though they come in close behind) but the track that attracts horsemen and women to Del Mar in the fall. Many of the trainers who have set up shop at the seaside oval for the next four weeks will tell you they choose to bring their horses to Del Mar, rather than shuttling them in for the races, because of the racing surface.
“November at Del Mar is probably the best track we have,” trainer Peter Miller says. “because there are so few horses, the surface is great and the weather is cool. It’s the best track we have all year on this circuit in my opinion.”
Miller has brought a string of 20 horses to Del Mar this fall and he plans to shuttle in horses from the San Luis Rey Training Center in nearby Bonsal, much like he does during the summer meet. Miller also owns a home 10 minutes from the track so he has a personal affection for Del Mar.
But he’s not alone in his opinion. Phil D’Amato is back to defend his training title at Del Mar and he echoes Miller’s sentiments.
“It’s a track where there’s not a lot of traffic,” he says. “It’s fresh and horses seem to get over it better. And you can race horses on the grass as well. It suits my barn very well."
Both D’Amato and Miller will have horses running in the $75,000 Kathryn Crosby, the feature race on Saturday. Nine fillies and mares have been entered in the one mile test on the Jimmy Durante Turf Course. D’Amato’s Dolce Zel is the morning line favorite.
“She’s a new filly into my barn,” D’Amato says. “I’ve had her for a couple of months and she’s training very well. I think it’s a good race to get her started.”
D’Amato also brings Turnerloose back to Del Mar. The 4-year old daughter of Nyquist ran twice at Del Mar over the summer, finishing fifth in the G2 Yellow Ribbon and second to Closing Remarks in the G2 John Mabee. She subsequently ran last in the G2 Rodeo Drive up at Santa Anita.
“She came out of the race a little sick so she had a valid excuse there,” D’Amato says. “She’s run well on the Del Mar surface, so with a class relief and a happy filly hopefully we’ll get a better performance.”
Miller brings Free and Humble into the Kathryn Crosby. She ran three times during the Del Mar summer meet, finishing third in an entry level allowance before winning at that level in her next race. She then ran sixth in the John Mabee. The 3-year old daughter of Free Drop Billy was third last out in the $100,000 Unzippped at Santa Anita behind Ruby Nell, who won the G3 Autumn Miss last Sunday.
“It’s a tough spot again for her but she’s doing well,” Miller says. “We gotta run her. She still has the two-X allowance condition but that race doesn’t come up until the end of the meet and we don’t want to wait another month with her. So we’re going to give it a go.”
He expects Free and Humble to stalk third or fourth in the race which features two entries from trainer Bob Baffert. Ganadora returns to the turf. She has 10 career starts but only one on the grass. Baffert also brings Lucky For You, a daughter of Uncle Mo, who hasn’t raced since August at Del Mar when she ran sixth in a non-winners of two allowance race.
The Kathryn Crosby is the seventh of nine races on the Saturday card. It’s named after the popular actress of the 1950’s and wife of Del Mar founder Bing Crosby. Post time for the stakes race is 3:30 p.m.
Here’s the field from the rail with the jockeys and morning line odds: Linda’s Gift (Tiago Pereira, 5-1); Nadette (Hector Berrios, 6-1); Very Scary (Kent Desormeaux, 15-1); Turnerloose (Antonio Fresu, 7-2); Dolce Zel (Flavien Prat, 5-2); Ganadora (Juan Hernandez, 6-1); Free and Humble (Mike Smith, 12-1); Lucky For You (Kyle Frey, 12-1), and Yerwanthere (Umberto Rispoli, 6-1).
FREE HANDICAPPING SEMINARS SATURDAY, SUNDAY DURING FALL MEET
Del Mar again will present free handicapping seminars to fans each Saturday and Sunday throughout the fall meeting.
The sessions will be held in the Hacienda Room patio, just off the Plaza de Mexico, and begin at 11:35 a.m. in advance of the 12:30 p.m. first post. They usually run for about 30 minutes.
Professional handicapper Frank Scatoni will lead the Saturday gatherings and his guest this week will be owner and horse player Ciaran Thornton. Media veteran Dan Smith is in charge of the Sunday offerings and he’ll host Equibase chart caller and the “King of Ferndale” Ellis Davis this week.
COOLING OUT: Another regular in the Del Mar jockey colony is moving his tack. Abel Cedillo, winner of the jockeys title at Del Mar in the fall of 2020, has decided to ride at Turfway Park this winter. He has a few mounts at Del Mar this weekend and then he will be off to Kentucky…12 horses put in official workouts Friday, three of them were stakes winners. C Z Rocket, winner of the 2020 G2 Pat O’Brien, worked four furlongs in :48.40 for trainer Peter Miller; Order and Law, winner of the G3 Cougar II this past summer, went four furlongs in :48.40 for trainer Bob Hess, Jr., and Big City Lights, winner of the 2022 Real Good Deal Stakes, worked seven furlongs in 1:25.20 for Hall of Fame trainer Richard Mandella.