Andrew Lerner © Benoit Photo
LERNER RELISHES GIANT CHALLENGES IN WEEKEND STAKES
Up-and-coming young trainer Andrew Lerner will be seeking his first graded stakes victory in a 2 ½-year career when he sends out Rager in Saturday’s Grade III $100,000 Bob Hope Stakes.
On Sunday, Lerner, 30, will saddle Queen Bee to You in the $100,000 Betty Grable Stakes.
The competition features runners from powerhouse trainers like Bob Baffert and Doug O’Neill (Hope) and Peter Miller (Grable). Is that intimidating?
“No, I love it,” Lerner said Friday morning from Santa Anita. “I have great admiration for them and I love to see my name in the program with them. It still gives me goosebumps. I’ve watched them and I try to emulate their training styles and it’s a thrill to be in against them.”
A third-place finish by Ippodamia’s Girl in the Grade III Ken Maddy Stakes on Breeders’ Cup Saturday, November 2 at Santa Anita is the highest accomplishment by a Lerner runner to this point in a career that saw his stable earnings increase from $81,785 in 2017 to $265,384 in 2018 and $778,939 this year.
Rager, a 2-year-old son of Into Mischief that was an $87,000 purchase at the Ocala sale earlier this year, rallied from a slow start for a three-quarter-length victory on turf in his racing debut last month at Santa Anita. The five Hope rivals include Baffert trained juveniles Thousand Words and High Velocity that fetched $1 million and $350,000 at sales respectively. Rather than run them against each other, Baffert is expected to scratch Thousand Words, reducing the high-priced competition to High Velocity and $220,000 purchase Strongconstitution, trained by Doug O’Neill.
“(Rager) has trained well since he won on turf and Into Mischief (progeny) have shown they can run on turf or dirt, so we thought we’d give him a shot,” Lerner said. “I don’t necessarily like the No. 1 post, but it’s going to be a small field and hopefully Martin (Garcia) will be able to get good position and go from there.”
Queen Bee to You, a 5-year-old California-bred daughter of Old Topper, won the ungraded, $100,000 Bertrando against males at Los Alamitos in June in her first start for Lerner, but was overmatched in the Grade I Clement Hirsch here on July 28. She has run twice since, and most recently was fifth in the $100,000 California Distaff at Santa Anita at 5 ½ furlongs on turf. The Betty Grable is seven furlongs on the main track.
“We knew the Betty Grable was the goal and the 5 ½ furlong was a prep,” Lerner said. “She’s in a good post and Flavien (Prat) will be able to play the break and go from there. She’s 3-1 on the morning line, and I think that’s fair.”
The Betty Grable field from the rail: Show It N Moe It (Rafael Bejarano, 4-1), Creative Instinct (Joe Talamo, 6-1), Starr of Quality (Tiago Pereira, 7-2), Love a Honeybadger (Tyler Baze, 6-1), Mo See Cal (Abel Cedillo, 5-2), Coco Kisses (Edwin Maldonado, 15-1), and Queen Bee to You (Flavien Prat, 3-1).
BASEBALL STANDOUT, RACING SUPPORTER IRV NOREN DEAD AT 94
Irv Noren, a major league outfielder from 1950-60 and a longtime supporter of racing, especially at Del Mar, as an owner and fan, died Friday morning at his Oceanside home. He was 94, two weeks away from his 95th birthday.
Noren had been in ill health and under hospice care for an extended period of time.
“But he came out (to Del Mar) two or three times in the summer in a wheelchair,” said Jenine Sahadi, a friend, former trainer and racing office official. “I talked to him last week and he said he wanted to come out to this meeting.”
Noren played for six different teams from 1950-60 – the Washington Senators, New York Yankees, Kansas City Athletics, St. Louis Cardinals, Chicago Cubs and Los Angeles Dodgers. He is best remembered by longtime baseball fans for the 4 1/2-years spent with the Yankees (1952-56) in which he was platooned in the outfield with Bob Cerv and started four games at centerfield in the 1955 World Series for an injured Mickey Mantle.
Noren played on three Yankee World Championship teams and was the third-base coach for Dick Williams on the Oakland A’s champions in 1972-73.
Following his playing career, Noren was a frequent visitor to Del Mar and a part-owner of several horses.
Services are pending.
VAN DYKE, MILLER LEAD BY TWO ATOP STANDINGS
Drayden Van Dyke, the defending Bing Crosby meeting champion, notched three wins Thursday to open a 6-4 margin over Abel Cedillo atop the jockey standings.
Van Dyke scored with Hariboux ($4.80) in the first race, Speedy Justice ($4.80) in the fourth and Kittyhawk Lass ($7.00) in the sixth. Heriberto Figueroa and Tiago Pereira are tied for third with three wins each.
Flavien Prat, winner of the 2018 Crosby title and 2019 summer championship, returns Friday from serving a three-day suspension that started last weekend. While on hiatus, Prat vacationed in Mexico.
Prat is booked aboard 13 mounts over the next three days, Van Dyke seven as the two mid-20s aged riders re-engage in the rivalry at the top that has blossomed over the past two years.
Miller saddled Threefiveindia, ridden by Cedillo, to win Thursday’s seventh race and open a 4-2 lead over nine other trainers, among them Richard Baltas, Doug O’Neill, Bob Baffert and John Sadler.
HESS, KALLEWARD ARE WEEKEND HANDICAPPING SEMINAR GUESTS
Trainer Bob Hess, Jr., and Curtis Kalleward, stalwart of the Racing Dudes website, will be the guest experts on the weekend handicapping seminars for Week Two of the meeting.
Hess, a veteran of more than three decades as a trainer with two Del Mar training titles and 11 stakes victories to his credit here, will provide opinions and selections on Saturday. Kalleward, nicknamed “Magic” for the success of some of his predictions, will be the guest of host Frank Scatoni on Sunday.
The seminars are from 11:30-12:15 both days and are held at the Seaside Terrace near the top of the stretch.
CLOSERS – Talamo 2K update: Jockey Joe Talamo, two wins shy of 2,000 for his career, has three mounts on Friday’s eight-race card. He’s scheduled aboard Rizzi’s Honors (4th, 5-1), Super Bunny (5th, 10-1), and Going to Vegas (6th, 4-1)…Breeders’ Cup runner Mo Forza, an upset winner ($39.60) of the Twilight Derby on the undercard of the Breeders’ Cup at Santa Anita on November 2, worked 4 furlongs in :50.00 Friday morning for trainer Peter Miller.