Sovereignty © Zoe Metz
SOVEREIGNTY PUTS IN FINAL WORK FOR BREEDERS’ CUP CLASSIC
Shortly after the sun came up over Del Mar Monday morning Kentucky Derby winner Sovereignty made his way out on the track and put in a half-mile work. He looked as solid and confident as ever, breezing the four furlongs in :49.80.
“He went well, we were happy with him,” trainer Bill Mott said afterward. “All of the other trainers call it a maintenance work so I guess we can say it.”
Sovereignty arrived at Del Mar Wednesday after shipping across country. The son of Into Mischief has done his share of traveling this year, from Florida to Kentucky then to Saratoga in New York where he’s spent the last 24 weeks. During that time he won the G1 Belmont Stakes, the G2 Jim Dandy and the G1 Travers. This is the first time he’s been west of the Mississippi.
“He looks good,” Mott says when asked about the ship. “Nothing went wrong. We made it in unscathed.”
Sovereignty has been an impressive sight on track in the days leading up to today’s final work. The screws have been tightened and now it’s just a waiting game in the last few days leading up to the Breeders’ Cup Classic on Saturday.
“We’ll jog and gallop,” Mott notes. “Just doing enough to keep him happy.”
BING CROSBY STAKES SCHEDULE MIRRORS SEASONS PAST
Predictable. It’s not a word often associated with horse racing. But in many ways the Bing Crosby Season stakes schedule is about as ‘predictable’ as you can get at Del Mar. Every year the racing office puts out its list of stakes races for the fall meet, which opens Thursday. And for the most part every year there are very few changes.
“I think you don’t change things just for the purpose of changing,” racing secretary David Jerkens says. “If something’s working, why tinker with it.
It’s by design and is intended to appeal to trainers who like to make plans for their horses months ahead of time.
“You do like to have that consistency where people know ‘Okay, the Matriarch is Thanksgiving week,’” Jerkens adds. “When I talk to trainers back east in the summer or the spring, before our summer meet, they’re already thinking of those particular races.”
So, if you have a good 2-year-old you know as a trainer or owner there’s the G3 Bob Hope in the middle of November at Del Mar. If you have a talented grass mare you can always count on the G3 Red Carpet the weekend before Thanksgiving and if she’s really good, you have the G1 Matriarch on closing day. Many an Eclipse Award hopeful has counted on the Fall Turf Festival to get-in that one last race before the end of the year.
This year the Bing Crosby Fall Meet Stakes schedule consists of 20 races with total prize money of $3.15 million. That of course does not include the Breeders’ Cup, which will cover the first weekend of racing this fall at Del Mar. The championship of horse racing features 14 races, all worth $1 million or more. Five on Friday, October 31 and nine more on Saturday, November 1. There will be five undercard races, three on Friday and two on Saturday.
The Fall Meet stakes schedule begins with the Let It Ride, a $100,000 overnight stakes for 3-year-olds going a mile on the turf, part of the opening day card on Thursday, October 30. Then after the feast of world class stakes action over Breeders’ Cup weekend, racing returns for week #2 of the Fall Meet with a pair of stakes races. The Chosen Vron Stakes, formerly known as the Cary Grant, will be run on Saturday, November 8. The Betty Grable for Cal-bred fillies and mares is the feature on Sunday, November 9.
Week three of the Fall Meet consists of two more stakes: the Desi Arnaz for 2-year-old fillies on Saturday, November 15 and the Bob Hope on Sunday, November 16.
By the time we reach the next to last weekend of the five-week Bing Crosby season the stakes schedule is left with nothing but graded stakes races, with one exception. Week four is highlighted by the G3 Native Diver for 3-year-olds and up going a mile and an eighth on the main track on Saturday, November 22 followed by the G3 Red Carpet on Sunday, November 23.
That leaves the final week of racing at Del Mar this year and it could be argued the racing office has saved the best for last. It’s the annual Fall Turf Festival which attracts horses from across the country, hoping to nail down one last graded stake to close out the year.
The festival begins the Friday after Thanksgiving with the G2 Hollywood Turf Cup, a mile and a half marathon for 3-year-olds and up. The next day, Saturday November 29 there are three stakes races: the G1 Hollywood Derby; the G2 Seabiscuit and the G3 Jimmy Durante for 2-year-old fillies.
That brings us to closing day and the four remaining stakes races. The G3 Bayakoa represents the one and only change from last year’s Fall Stakes schedule. The race for fillies and mares was part of the Breeders’ Cup undercard in 2024 but this year it helps anchor the conclusion of the Fall Turf Festival and the 2025 Bing Crosby Meet. It joins the G1 Matriarch, the G3 Cecil B. DeMille and the $100,000 Stormy Liberal turf sprint on closing day.
All told there are 11 graded stakes races this fall and 12 of the stakes races will be run on the Jimmy Durante Turf Course. After opening week, racing will be run on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays through November with first post at 12:30 p.m.
BREEDERS’ CUP 2017 AND 2021 REVISITED
This will be Del Mar’s fourth time hosting the Breeders’ Cup World Championship. The first year was in 2017. Four years later it returned. Both events were huge successes with record breaking handles and enthusiastic crowds.
Bringing the Breeders’ Cup to Del Mar had been a years long goal of track president Joe Harper. The need to widen the turf course was addressed and it wasn’t long before the folks at Breeders’ Cup came calling.
As to be expected, not everything that first year went off without a hitch but as the wrinkles were being ironed out, the horses were putting on quite a show. There were several high-priced upsets. Gun Runner’s victory in the Classic was not one of them.
The son of Candy Ride capped off his nearly perfect year with an impressive win, though it should be noted the eventual Horse of the Year was not the favorite in the Classic. That honor went to Bob Baffert’s Arrogate.
The Breeders’ Cup festivities began on Friday but it wasn’t the “Future Stars” format like we have today. Instead, the card only had four Breeders’ Cup races: the Distaff, the Dirt Mile and a pair of Juvenile turf races.
Forever Unbridled rolled home much the best in the Distaff. The victory clinched her the Eclipse Award for Older Dirt Female.
An announced attendance of 32,278 watched as Battle of Midway captured the Dirt Mile. The super talented Rushing Fall took the Juvenile Fillies Turf and Mendelssohn would take home the first of three Breeders’ Cup victories by Euro invaders with a score in the Juvenile Turf.
Breeders’ Cup Saturday was a big day for local trainer Peter Miller who became the first conditioner to saddle two back-to-back winners of the same Breeders’ Cup event. He won the Turf Sprint with Stormy Liberal for the second year in a row and then Roy H defended his crown in the Sprint.
Good Magic won the Juvenile becoming the first horse to break his maiden in a Breeders’ Cup race and Bar of Gold won the Filly and Mare Sprint paying a whopping $135.40 on a $2 win ticket, the third highest payoff in Breeders’ Cup history.
37,692 packed into the Del Mar grandstand Saturday. Over the two days, more than $166 million was wagered on the races, a Breeders’ Cup record at the time.
After the huge success at Del Mar in 2017, the Breeders’ Cup didn’t waste any time getting back to the seaside oval.
Knicks Go would cap his brilliant 2021 season with a win in the Breeders’ Cup Classic and clinched Horse of the Year honors.
The weekend also was highlighted by Godolphin’s hat trick and the first Japanese horse to ever win a Breeders’ Cup race. That came in the Filly and Mare Turf when Loves Only You got up by half a length to win. The Japanese would add another victory three races later when they took the Distaff with Marche Lorraine.
Meanwhile, Godolphin and trainer Charlie Appleby was piling up the victories. On Friday they won the Juvenile Turf with Modern Games in one of the strangest races in Breeders’ Cup history. Prior to the start, the horse next to Modern Games flipped in the gate and in order to keep Modern Games safe from harm the gate crew allowed him to exit through the front of the gate. However, the stewards up in the grandstand mistook Modern Games for breaking through the gate and he was ruled a ‘scratch’. He was eventually allowed to run but for purse money only.
Godolphin returned on Saturday to win the Mile with Space Blues and the Turf with Yibir. Trainer Wesley Ward sent out the winner in the Juvenile Turf Sprint for the third year in a row, winning handily with Twilight Gleaming. Echo Zulu (Juvenile Fillies), Corniche (Juvenile) and Pizza Bianca (Juvenile Fillies Turf), owned by popular chef Bobby Flay, also won on Friday.
On Saturday, Ce Ce started the proceedings with an upset over heavily favored Gamine in the Filly and Mare Sprint. Golden Pal, the previous year’s winner of the Juvenile Turf Sprint, returned to win the Turf Sprint in wire-to-wire fashion and Life Is Good waltzed to a 5 ¾-lengths romp in the Dirt Mile.
Aloha West would win arguably the most thrilling race of the day, nailing a tough luck Dr. Schivel on the wire to win the Sprint by a nose.
COOLING OUT: With the Breeders’ Cup drawing closer, most of the horses participating in this year’s event have put in their final works. A few wrapped up preparations Monday morning. Scylla fired a bullet :46.60 in her half-mile work for Bill Mott. She’s being pointed to the Distaff. The Argentine-bred Sarawak Rim worked four furlongs in :48.80 for trainer Ignacio Correas IV. She’s also being pointed to the Distaff…The Rood & Riddle Breeders’ Cup Post Position draw is set for this afternoon at 4:15 p.m. in the paddock at Del Mar. All 14 races will be drawn.