Nysos battles Citizen Bull (rail) in the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile © Benoit Photo
BREEDERS’ CUP RUNNERS FROM DEL MAR LEAVE GOOD IMPRESSIONS
The dust has settled and aspiring champions have made their case. Breeders’ Cup 42 is in the books and, like most Breeders’ Cups, it lived up to its expectations.
Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert carried the torch for the West Coast contingent. Of his 13 starters, he had two winners (Splendora, Filly & Mare Sprint and Nysos, Dirt Mile) three seconds (Explora, Juvenile Fillies; Imagination, Sprint and Citizen Bull, Dirt Mile) and two thirds (Brant, Juvenile and Hope Road, Filly & Mare Sprint). Baffert says with the exception of Seismic Beauty, who grabbed a quarter during her run in the Distaff, every one of his horses came back in good order including Citizen Bull who was part of the most exciting finish of the day in arguably the best performance by a horse in a race they did not win.
“That was the best performance of his life,” Baffert commented Sunday morning as he supervised Nysos grazing on the walking ring grass outside his stable. “He was doing really, really well. We just let him roll. He didn’t look like he was going :45.”
As for what’s next for his Breeders’ Cup horses.
“I don’t know yet,” Baffert says. “I’m just soaking it in right now. Glad they all showed up except for a couple of them.”
Baffert wasn’t the only West Coast trainer to win a Breeders’ Cup race this year. John Sadler won with Super Corredora in the Juvenile Fillies.
“She’s a filly we had really high hopes for,” Sadler says. “She has a beautiful stride and we always expected she could get two turns. We’re in our own backyard. We weren’t sure we were going to run but we trained her a little bit here and she trained well and here we are.”
It was also jockey Hector Berrios first Breeders’ Cup win.
“I’m very excited for this moment,” Berrios commented after the race. “It’s an amazing day for me today and for my career.”
Trainer Michael McCarthy didn’t get a win but Formidable Man’s second place finish to Notable Speech in the Breeders’ Cup Mile was a winning effort and justified his standing as “horse for the course”.
“I thought he ran fantastic,” McCarthy notes. “A huge effort to an incredible horse. We did everything but win. To me, he’s the best of what we’ve got here in America.”
McCarthy says all six of his Breeders’ Cup runners came back fine including Journalism who ran fourth in the Classic and Stark Contrast, who ran second in the Juvenile Turf.
Trainer Richard Baltas left town this morning for Kentucky for the big sale at Keeneland. His Ag Bullet, who will be in the auction this week, ran second to Shisospicy in the Turf Sprint. Baltas says she came back good.
She was one of two horses Baltas had entered in the Breeders’ Cup but his other horse, Sweet Azteca, was a vet scratch hours before the race. She was the morning line favorite in the Filly and Mare Sprint.
Trainer Mark Glatt’s Dr. Venkman made a mad run to get third in the Sprint falling a few strides shy of nailing second.
“On most days in those kind of races you hope your horse gives a good showing,” Glatt contends. “He did that and we were happy.”
A trio of jockeys from the Del Mar colony made their marks this weekend. In addition to Berrios, leading rider Juan Hernandez was knocking on the door with three seconds; Antonio Fresu notched a second and a third and Kazushi Kimura ran second on Stark Contrast.
Total all-sources handle for the two-day event was $180,036,799, third best in Breeders’ Cup history, exceeding last year’s total of $179,218,631. On track handle for the two days was $18,079,169.
Saturday’s attendance was 35,173.
CAL-BRED STAKES HIGHLIGHT WEEK TWO ACTION AT DEL MAR
The Cal-breds are back in the spotlight next weekend, week two of the Bing Crosby Season at Del Mar. There are two stakes races, one on Saturday the other on Sunday.
The $100,000 The Chosen Vron Stakes, formerly known as the Cary Grant Stakes, is a seven furlong contest for 3-year-olds and up. The name was changed to honor the outstanding Cal-bred gelding by Vronsky, who retired earlier this year. The Chosen Vron was a two-time California Horse of the Year, a four-time winner at Del Mar and winner of the Cary Grant twice.
This year 13 horses were nominated for the The Chosen Vron. Big City Lights ran in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint Saturday and Vodka Vodka won the opener on Friday so they would have to be wheeled back in a week.
That still leaves Speedy Wilson, 2024’s 2-year-old Cal-bred champion, one of three nominations to the race from the Philip D’Amato barn. He’s also considering Shea Brennan and Shady Tiger.
Man O Rose, Drop Um, Clovisconnection, and R Heisman are also being considered for the race.
On Sunday, the lady Cal-breds are featured in the $100,000 Betty Grable Stakes another seven-furlong test on the main track that could feature a showdown between Grand Slam Smile and Om N Joy.
Grand Slam Smile was champion 2-year-old filly in 2023 and champion 3-year-old filly last year and judging by her four races this year, she hasn’t lost a step.
Om N Joy won five straight races for trainer Aggie Ordonez before she went back to Keeneland and took on grade two runners in the Raven Run. She’ll be back home where she won the G3 Torrey Pines on Pacific Classic Day.
Twelve horses are nominated for the Betty Grable including Sneaker who is quite capable of spoiling the party for trainer George Papaprodromou.
Live racing at Del Mar returns on Friday with eight races. First post at 12:30 p.m.
COLLMUS SLIDES INTO ANOTHER BING CROSBY SEASON AT DEL MAR
The transition from the Breeders’ Cup back to the Bing Crosby Season at Del Mar will be seamless especially in the announcers booth where Larry Collmus is back for his sixth fall meet at the seaside oval.
Collmus just finished announcing his 14th Breeders’ Cup from his booth up on the roof of the six-story grandstand.
“Sunday is the only question mark in my head,” Collmus admits. “The question is how will my voice be and how tired am I going to be. But you get through it and then we get a little break until Friday so it’s no big deal.”
Collmus doesn’t just walk in the booth, pick up a program and announce the races. There are hours of preparation leading up to the Breeders’ Cup which shows by his flawless calls of every race.
The question is how does he come down from the high of working one of horse racing’s biggest events to calling a maiden race or $10,000 claimer the next day.
“It won’t be exactly the same,” Collmus admits. “It’s natural to give bigger races bigger calls. But on the other hand, someone who owns or bets on a $10,000 claimer are going to be pretty excited when they win so I’m not going to sound bored. I’m still going to give it as much as I can without going overboard. I don’t think you want every race to sound like the Breeders’ Cup Classic.”
Collmus still calls New Jersey home. He’s been staying in a hotel with his other colleagues from NBC and will move in to an Airbnb across the street from Del Mar on Monday.
"The comfort zone here is great,” Collmus notes. “This is my sixth fall meet and I’ve done the summer meet now, so I’ve got a good feel for that and I’ve come to know the area well. It’s kind of cool to come to a track and not need the GPS on the phone to go to all the other places because you know where they all are.”
“The fall meet is a little more laid back with the three-day a week schedule,” Collmus adds. “It’ll be fun.”
COOLING OUT: Baffert, who has been known to don a Dodger jacket on occasion, says he watched last night’s game in a private room with friends. “All the playoffs were just crazy,” Baffert notes. “Baseball this year has been really exciting with the Mariners and all. It was great.” The Dodger defeated Toronto, 5-4 in eleven innings to clinch back-to-back World Series titles…Notable works on Sunday: Dirt – Katonah (3f, :36.20); Speedy Wilson (4f, :48.00); Unconquerable Keen (4f, :49.60); R. Heisman (5f, 1:01.00); Shea Brennan (5f, :59.20) and Tarantino (6f, 1:12.40).