By Hank Wesch
SUMMER FRONT BLOWS IN FROM EAST FOR READ
If Summer Front had a business card it would likely read: “Have Ability, Will Travel.”
When Summer Front, the 8-5 morning line favorite for Sunday’s Grade I, $300,000 Eddie Read Stakes, departs the gate the 5-year-old son of War Front will be running for the eighth time in the past 11 months and on a seventh different track. All against graded stakes competition.
Owned by Waterford Stable and trained by Christophe Clement, Summer Front has two wins and three second-place finishes to show for those seven starts which have come in the states of New Jersey, Kentucky, California, Florida and New York. Most recently, Summer Front shipped from Clement’s headquarters in New York to Santa Anita for a runner-up finish to Obviously in the Shoemaker Mile on June 14, went back to New York to train and then journeyed back to California, arriving at Del Mar on Wednesday.
“When a horse ships as well as this one it’s no problem,” said Lee Vickers, assistant to Clement and Summer Front’s travelling companion. “He jogged Thursday and galloped the next two days. He trained well back in New York, he’s moving well and we’re very pleased with how he’s doing.”
Summer Front has eight wins in 19 career starts and earnings of $814, 140. A victory in the Read, the first of seven Grade I stakes during the summer meeting, would be the first at that level for Summer Front and the $180,000 first place money in the 1 1/8-mile turf event would put Summer Front on the doorstep of millionaire status.
“The extra distance over the Shoemaker could help and there’s no Obviously this time,” Vickers said. “We hope there’ll be a bit of pace for him to run at.”
Clement sent out Discreet Marq to win the 2013 Del Mar Oaks. Joe Bravo was scheduled to travel to Del Mar overnight after riding Saturday at Woodbine in Toronto.
The Read will go as the fifth on an 11-race card and will be telecast nationally as part of the Jockey Club Tour on FOX. Also featured on the two-hour FOX Sports 1 telecast (2:30-4:30 p.m. Pacific) will be the Coaching Club American Oaks from Saratoga. On-air duties will be handled by Greg Wolf, Richard Migliore, Andy Serling, and Alyssa Ali at Saratoga and Simon Bray at Del Mar.
SHERMAN ALL SMILES AFTER A CHROME RUN
Trainer Art Sherman made the trip from his Rancho Bernardo residence to Los Alamitos on Friday to check on California Chrome.
The Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes winner arrived at Los Alamitos on Thursday after being given over a month break at Harris Farm in Coalinga.
“The Big Horse looks great,” Sherman said Saturday morning at Del Mar. “He’s put on weight, his foot (injured when fourth in the Belmont Stakes) is all healed. We jogged him today and now we just hope everything goes well and we get him ready for the Breeders’ Cup.”
Sherman said he’d like to have one prep race before the Breeders’ Cup, preferably sometime in late September.
GAME ON DUDE BEGINS PACIFIC CLASSIC DEFENSE WORK
Defending TVG Pacific Classic champion Game On Dude worked 4 furlongs under Martin Garcia in :47.60 seconds Saturday morning.
“He looked good,” trainer Bob Baffert said.
“Off the rail a little. In hand. A good first step,” were the observations from clocker Toby Terrell.
PROCTOR/SMITH/GLEN HILL SHOOT FOR STAKES WIN NO. 2
The combination of Glen Hill Farm, trainer Tom Proctor and Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith seek a second stakes win of the meeting with Diversy Harbor in Saturday’s $200,000 Grade II San Clemente Handicap.
They teamed up and got Enterprising home (barely) in the Oceanside Stakes on opening day. It was the 40th Del Mar Stakes victory for Smith and ninth overall but first in the Oceanside for Proctor. His father, Willard Proctor, won the Oceanside twice for Glen Hill.
Diversy Harbor, a Kentucky-bred daughter of Curlin, has two wins and has never been out of the money in five starts and, most recently, was second in the American Oaks at Santa Anita.
SAY CHEESE! JOCKEY PHOTO DAYS SUNDAY
Fans will have the opportunity to have their pictures taken with their favorite riders in the perennially popular Jockey Photo Days promotion on Sunday.
Hall of Famer Mike Smith, Corey Nakatani, Rafael Bejarano and Martin Garcia are veterans of the annual event. They are expected to be joined by Del Mar newcomers apprentice Drayden Van Dyke as well as Stewart Elliott and Elvis Trujillo, accomplished elsewhere but in their first year here, among others.
BANNER DAY FOR SHIP AND WIN
How well is the Ship And Win bonus program working? There are 18 bonus-eligible horses (having last raced out of state) on the 11-race Saturday card. The rundown, by races: 2nd – Two Step Flor (R.B. Hess trainer), Adellusion (Michael Stidham), 3rd—Dynamic Decision (Mark Casse); 4th – Aspirational (Peter Miller), 6th – Ann of the Dance (Philip Oliver), Beatrice (John Sadler), Cozze Up Lady (J. Keith Desormeaux), 7th—He’s a Bling (Tom Proctor), 9th – Tepin (Mark Casse), Miss Machiavelli (J. Keith Desormeaux), Sandiva (Michael McCarthy), Istanford (Michael Stidham), My Conquestadory (Mark Casse), 10th – Fighter Squadron (Michael Stidham), Harlan’s Vitesse (Phil D’Amato), Foolhardy (Peter Eurton), 11th -- Freethinker (Victoria Oliver), Penny Sixpence (Neil Drysdale).
CLOSERS -- Notable works from the 214 timed Saturday morning: Fury Kapcori (4f, :48.00), Game On Dude (4f, :47.60), Candy Boy (5f, 1:00.20), Customer Base (5f, 1:02.40), Dance With Fate (5f, :58.40), Flat Gone (5f, 1:00.40), Imperative (5f, 1:01.00), Soi Phet (1:01.20), American Blend (7f, 1:27.40) …Thirty-eight horses are in the catalog for The Paddock Sale at Del Mar of “Race Ready” Horse in Training. The event will be held shortly after the final race on Sunday, at approximately 6:30 p.m.
Saturday, July 19, 2014 Contact: Dan Smith 858-792-4226/Hank Wesch 858-755-1141 ext. 3793