Cassidy, Gonzalez © Benoit Photo
CASSIDY/GONZALEZ COMBINATION CLICKS AGAIN IN KATHRYN CROSBY
Trainer Jim Cassidy wasn’t concerned about the 17-1 odds on Full Ransom in Saturday’s $82,900 Kathryn Crosby Stakes. He was concerned, in the race’s early stages, about the circumstances surrounding the 4-year-old Full Mandate filly.
But in the end the 70-year-old conditioner could smile and hug 32-year-old jockey Santiago Gonzalez – for whom Cassidy was an early and major supporter – on a 1 ¼-length victory.
“I thought the odds were a little long, but it didn’t bother me,” Cassidy said Sunday morning from the Los Angeles area, where he returned after the race. “I could understand they were based on her last race (10th beaten 7 ¼ lengths), which we had dismissed.
“We had a new rider who didn’t know her and Santiago (aboard six times previously) knows her better. This filly always tries and we were happy with her going into it.”
The race didn’t develop as Cassidy envisioned it would. But Gonzalez, a star in his native Venezuela whose stock has been steadily rising through the year in Southern California, judged it well.
“It was a fabulous ride,” Cassidy said. “There was so much positioning early because, I think, a lot of the jocks thought the turf course was speed favoring. I think some of them moved early while Santiago waited.
“To be honest, about the middle of the turn I didn’t think we had a chance. But they made it.”
Gonzalez topped the rider standings for the first week of the Bing Crosby season with five wins. The Kathryn Crosby score keeps him there, by a 6-5 margin over Rafael Bejarano and Alonso Quinonez entering Sunday’s finale to Week Two.
“I think he can win a riding title,” Cassidy said. “It’s a matter of getting enough good mounts. That’s what it boils down to for any of them.”
TRAINER HECTOR PALMA WINS 1,100th, AND THEN UNO MAS
Trainer Hector Palma saddled Tough But Nice ($13.60) to win Saturday’s third race, career victory No. 1,100 and, for good measure, the ninth with Shiny Nugget ($45.80).
“It’s fantastic,” Palma said after the milestone win. “I’m 78 and I’ve been training for a long time. I came from here from Mexico, I’m proud to be a Mexican, and this is a really big moment for me.”
SUNDAY MORNINGS AT DEL MAR WORK FINE FOR PETER MILLER
Carlsbad resident Peter Miller’s fall schedule calls for him to spend most mornings at the San Luis Rey training center where he keeps much of his stock.
But Sunday mornings during this meeting are for workouts here. That’s where he was this morning to observe, among others, a 3-furlong work (in :36.00) of Crowley’s Law a 4-year-old English-bred filly recently acquired with the $300,000 Grade I Matriarch Stakes on Closing Day, Nov. 29, in mind.
Crowley’s Law was runner-up to Tepin in the Grade I First Lady at Keeneland on October 3, then won a $100,000 event at Woodbine on October 24 in the most recent of three U.S. starts since being imported from Europe in August.
Crowley’s Law has four wins from 17 career starts and lifetime earnings of $294,307.
Miller recently returned from a Breeders’ Cup Week in Lexington that neither started nor ended well. On Monday, Pat O’Brien Stakes winner Appealing Tale was declared from the Dirt Mile due to an ankle injury and, on Friday, Hollywood Don was ninth in the Juvenile Turf.
“It was unfortunate and disappointing because we thought Appealing Tale could win the Dirt Mile,” Miller said. “Hollywood Don didn’t handle the soft turf.”
Appealing Tale underwent surgery that will sideline him for a few months. Hollywood Don might get a break from racing or possibly come back at Santa Anita in December.
YANA COULD BE BEST OF THE SPEED IN TODAY’S BETTY GRABLE
It shouldn’t be hard to spot Yana, a 4-year-old daughter of Bertrando, in the early going of today’s featured $100,000 Betty Grable Stakes. Yana, owned by Stephen Ferraro, trained by Bill Spawr and ridden by Tyler Baze, will be the one out front.
“She’s fast,” Spawr said. “Controlling her speed is the problem, but Tyler knows her well.”
WHAT’S IN A NAME – BETTY GRABLE STAKES
Called the “Cat’s Cradle” Stakes when run at Hollywood Park, today’s featured event was renamed to honor Betty Grable, the dancer, singer and 20th Century Fox movie star of the 1940s and ‘50s. Celebrated for having the most beautiful legs in Hollywood, her iconic bathing suit poster was the No. 1 pin-up for American G.I.’s in World War II. She was a regular at Del Mar in the track’s early decades with her husband, band leader and trumpeter Harry James.
IT’S ALL ABOUT THE BING
For the second Bing Crosby Season at Del Mar, we offer a daily note, quote or anecdote about the track’s founding father for whom the fall meeting is named.
Working for different studios kept Bing and Betty Grable, for whom today’s featured stakes is named, apart on the silver screen. But they shared legendary art director William Edward Flannery on some of their film classics – Million Dollar Legs (1939) for Grable, Going My Way (1944) and Bells of St. Mary’s (1945) for Bing.
CLOSERS – Trainer Doug O’Neill said that Bailoutbobby, winner of the $300,000 Marathon on Breeders’ Cup Friday at Keeneland and one-third owned by Great Friends Stable, is likely to be sold and could wind up in Hong Kong. “He’s a 1 ¾ mile dirt horse and there’s not many races like that,” O’Neill said … Selected works from 48 on the main track and 13 on turf officially timed Sunday: Dirt – Silentio (6f, 1:12.00); Turf – Avanzare (7f, 1:28.20) and Mister Brightside (4f, :48.40) … There are carryovers of $75,858 in the Pick Six and $51,700 in the High 5 on today’s program.
Contact: Dan Smith 858-792-4226/Hank Wesch 858-755-1141 ext. 3793