Bob Baffert © Benoit Photo
BAFFERT BRINGS TOP FILLIES IN SEARCH OF THIRD STRAIGHT DEBUTANTE
We are entering Bob Baffert country this weekend. Every year the Hall of Fame trainer brings highly touted and very talented 2-year-olds to Del Mar. Many shine in the weeks leading up to closing week and then, as if saving the best for last, he unloads on both the G1 Del Mar Debutante and the G1 Futurity. More times than not in recent years he wins.
Saturday is the 76th running of the Del Mar Debutante, a seven-furlong journey on the main track which generally crowns the top Juvenile Filly at the meet and often ends up sending one or two horses to the Breeders’ Cup.
Baffert has won the race 12 times. He’s won it the past two years and five of the last seven. This year he sends out the morning line favorite in Miss Monica, a winner at first asking last month at Del Mar where she wired the field by 5 ¾ lengths.
“Miss Monica was really impressive,” Baffert noted. “We knew she was good. She tipped her hand in the mornings. She’s a big, beautiful filly.”
This will be her second race for owners Pegram, Watson and Weitman.
“Second out is very important,” Baffert adds. “That second out really tells the story. I’ve had a lot of them either go backwards or forward and she needs to move forward. She’ll be running against winners now but she’s going into it great.”
Her stablemate, Holmby, is entered in the Debutante. She’s also undefeated and in her case it’s after two races. Holmby won first time out at Del Mar on opening weekend then returned last month to win the G3 Sorrento Stakes at the seaside oval.
“Holmby’s been golden,” Baffert says. “She’s little but mighty. She’s really game. She can sit off the pace which is important, especially going seven-eighths. If they go too fast they don’t finish. She’s come back and worked really well.”
We don’t often get to see Ohio-breds run at Del Mar but there’s one in the Debutante. Trainer Brendan Walsh has shipped in Panda Listen, a daughter of Tiz the Law, who won the $100,000 Miss Ohio by six lengths at Thistledown last month.
Walsh will also start Fast Amy, a daughter of first crop sire Jackie’s Warrior, who was the Eclipse Award winning sprinter in 2021. Fast Amy fired a five-furlong bullet at Churchill Downs last Saturday before shipping out to Del Mar earlier this week.
Crazy Hot Mess finished third behind Holmby in the Sorrento Stakes and trainer Peter Miller is hoping she’ll return to the form she displayed in her debut in July in the slop at Ellis Park.
“She ran okay (in the Sorrento),” Miller states. “Not as well as she ran first time for us back in Kentucky. If she can regain that form then maybe she’s got a chance to hit the board.”
The Del Mar Debutante is the final stakes race of the day. It’s Race 10 on the eleven-race Saturday card. Probable post time is 6 p.m.
Here’s the field from the rail with the jockeys and the morning line odds: Panda Listen (Kazushi Kimura, 8-1); Dear Diary (Mike Smith, 8-1); Avalon Rose (Julien Leparoux, 15-1); Crazy Hot Mess (Joel Rosario, 12-1); Free Closer (Umberto Rispoli, 6-1); For the Win (Emisael Jaramillo, 12-1); Well Versed (Tyler Baze, 12-1); Holmby (Ricky Gonzalez, 4-1); Miss Monica (Juan Hernandez, 8/5), and Fast Amy (Hector I. Berrios, 8-1).
TWO-YEAR-OLDS GET TESTED IN G3 DEL MAR JUVENILE TURF SATURDAY
Kicking off the stakes action Saturday at Del Mar is the 15th running of the G3 Del Mar Juvenile Turf. Nine 2-year-olds will give it a go on the Jimmy Durante Turf Course, going one mile. None of them have faced winners yet and five broke their maidens last time out. All of them have turf experience but half the field has never gone two turns.
Shadow Nation is the morning line favorite off his 6 ½ length win in a maiden special weight his first time out at Santa Anita in May.
“He’s bred to run and it wasn’t a super tough race,” trainer Mike Puype notes. “I expected him to run well though he ran better than I thought he would. It wasn’t the speed figure or the time (:58.80) but it was how he did it. He was very impressive visually."
That race was only five furlongs, so he’ll be stretching out in his stakes debut.
“He’s bred on his mare’s side to do distance easy,” Puype explains. “He’s got a lot of family who will do the route, so I think we’ll be okay.”
Trainer Bob Baffert doesn’t run many turf horses, but he has one in here. Hoaxer is a son of Charlatan who raced for Baffert a few years ago. He’s only run once, a third in a maiden special weight at Del Mar last week. It was five furlongs on the turf and he finished with a flourish.
Trainer Jonathan Thomas has shipped in his first horse of the summer meet. Observed won at first asking, breaking his maiden at Horseshoe Indiana last month. He went 7 ½ furlongs that day so he’s gone two turns.
“We were expecting him to run well,” Thomas says. “Not to necessarily win but certainly from what he was showing us I think we would have been disappointed if he hadn’t finished first, second or third.”
Thomas says logistics and timing led to the decision to ship Observed out west.
“There was the With Anticipation at Saratoga that probably was too tough,” Thomas reasons. “We probably were not going to get into the race at Kentucky Downs because we didn’t have enough earnings and the race at Colonial, the Kittens Joy, we have another horse for that. We saw the mile at Del Mar and it’s kind of similar to the configuration at Indiana.
“That’s a good group of horses,” Thomas continues, “so we’re going to learn a lot about his ability level. Breaking your maiden is one thing but then running against winners in a pretty big field, you’re going to learn a lot about what you got.”
Observed arrived at Del Mar last Thursday and promptly fired a four-furlong bullet work (:47.80) on the grass Sunday.
Golden Sentry also won at first asking, albeit five furlongs on the grass at Santa Anita in May.
“He definitely trains like two turns will really suit him,” trainer Carla Gaines insists. “He was just gorgeous on the grass. I know we’re skipping some Cal-bred conditions but we think a lot of him. Hopefully he’ll win but if we just hit the board that’s fine. We still have our conditions.”
Trainer Peter Miller will send out two of his runners. Off the Corner won at first asking at Del Mar last month.
“He was touting himself pretty good,” Miller notes. “I like that horse a lot.”
Miller’s other entry is Automatic Press. He has the most experience in the field with five lifetime starts and two seconds.
“He’s run really solid since we bought him,” Miller states. “It’s a tough race. They don’t give the money away but we’ll be in there competing.”
The G3 Del Mar Juvenile Turf is Race 7 on Saturday’s card. Probable post time is 4:30 p.m.
Here’s the field from the rail with the jockeys and the morning line odds: Cosmic Charlie (Julien Leparoux, 20-1); Itinerary (Umberto Rispoli, 6-1); Observed (Juan Hernandez, 3-1); Golden Sentry (Kazushi Kimura, 5-1); Shadow Nation (Joel Rosario, 5/2); Dang Son (SCRATCHED); Hoaxer (Ricky Gonzalez, 4-1); Off in the Corner (Hector I. Berrios, 8-1); Automatic Press (Tyler Baze, 20-1), and Missed Fortune (Edwin Maldonado, 20-1).
THIRD TIME’S THE CHARM AT DEL MAR
It’s uncommon in this day and age of horseracing for a horse to win three times at the summer meet at Del Mar let alone run three times. With only 32 days of racing covering eight weeks the feat would require a horse to run at least once with less than three weeks between races. Not a big ask but something you don’t see as much anymore.
Back in the day when horses ran more frequently and Del Mar ran over 40 dates every summer, horses pulled off the three-win feat more than once. But nowadays, with horses running once a month, it’s no longer a common occurrence.
That being said, there are three horses this weekend who are primed to win their third race this summer at Del Mar.
Holmby is entered in Saturday’s G1 Del Mar Debutante and if it weren’t for her stablemate, Miss Monica, she’d be the morning line favorite to win the race. She broke her maiden on opening weekend, July 18, then followed with a win in the G3 Sorrento Stakes on August 9. Trainer Bob Baffert brings the daughter of Corniche back this time with just under a month between races.
Another horse with a shot at winning three races during the Del Mar meet is Ah Jeez, a claiming horse out of the barn of leading trainer Doug O’Neill. The gelded 6-year-old son of Mendelssohn won a $25,000 claimer on July 19 then came back and won a $32,000 claimer on August 14. He’s back in a little over three weeks to take another crack at $25,000 claimers in Race 3 on Sunday.
Finally, a third candidate for three wins on the meet is Net Par, a speedy 2-year-old son of Pavel who broke his maiden by 7 ¾ lengths at Del Mar on July 18, countered with a nose victory in the $100,000 Graduation Stakes two weeks later on August 7 and will run again Monday in the $100,000 I’m Smokin Stakes. He’s trained by Antonio Garcia for Del Mar’s leading owner at the meet, Paul Reddam.
The trifecta of victories at Del Mar is not quite on the scale of Gold Phoenix’ four straight Del Mar Handicap victories, but certainly an oddity for Del Mar in the 2020s.
HANDICAPPING SEMINARS BACK FOR LABOR DAY WEEKEND AT DEL MAR
Racing fans can once again take part in Del Mar’s Free Weekend Handicapping Seminars, held each Saturday and Sunday starting at 1 p.m. on the Kona Stage in the Plaza de Mexico. And this weekend, being as how there is racing on Labor Day Monday, there also will be a 1 p.m. seminar in advance of that card.
The seminars, which run for approximately a half hour prior to the first race post at 1:30 p.m., offer insights on the day’s racing card from expert handicappers.
Del Mar veteran Dan Smith is the host for the Saturday cards and his guest this week is Del Mar clocker Toby Turrell. Additionally, Smith also will host a Labor Day seminar where his guest will be former Daily Racing Form writer and reporter Jay Privman.
Sunday programs will be overseen by handicapping ace Frank Scatoni and he’ll have as his guest this week will be horse owner and horse player Jason Avila.
COOLING OUT: On the Whim, two-time winner of the $150,000 California Dreamin Stakes, including this year’s edition on August 1, is entered in an entry-level allowance race on Saturday. The 6-year-old gelded son of Acclamation drew post #4 in Race 4…Jockey Juan Hernandez has plans to head out of town after the Del Mar summer meet ends Monday. Hernandez has a mount in the G3 Princess Rooney Stakes at Gulfstream Park the following Saturday, September 12. It’s a “Win and You’re In” for the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint. Hernandez will head out for South Florida on Tuesday…Notable works on Friday: Dirt – Giggle Giggle (4f,:47.20); Simami (4f, :47.20), and Latin Air (5f, 1:00.40). 83 horses put in official works at Del Mar Friday morning.