Big John B back on favorite course in Hollywood Turf Cup
DEL MAR, Calif. – A festival has to have a feast, and Del Mar will have quite the holiday offering Thursday to begin its closing-week turf festival, with the Grade 2, $250,000 Hollywood Turf Cup and a $102,968 carryover in the pick six highlighting an eight-race Thanksgiving Day card that begins at 11 a.m. Pacific.
Arlington Million winner The Pizza Man is the marquee name in the 1 1/2-mile Turf Cup and is the likely favorite, but he will have to defeat Big John B, who is back on his favorite course after finishing well back of The Pizza Man last out in the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Keeneland.
Big John B has won all three of his starts on this course, including the Grade 2 Del Mar Handicap at 1 3/8 miles during the summer meeting. He finished 10th of 12 in the BC Turf on a course rated “good” after a good soaking earlier in the week.
“He didn’t even try,” said trainer Phil D’Amato, who added that jockey Rafael Bejarano told him that Big John B “was literally hopping the whole way.”
“This is his surface of choice,” said D’Amato. “The last race took nothing out of him, and he’s been training up a storm since he got back here. It’s a salty race, but I’m comfortable he’s going to run his race on this surface.”
An overflow field of 16 was entered in the Turf Cup. Since a maximum of 14 can run, two were placed on the also-eligible list. Big John B has post 14, so he’ll have to work out a trip.
The Turf Cup is the fifth leg of the pick six, which begins with race 3. Of particular interest is race 6, an optional claimer for 2-year-old fillies going six furlongs, in which six of the runners exit the Oct. 29 Golden State Juvenile Fillies, won by the Starlet-bound Pacific Heat.
Key contenders
Big John B (Last 3 Beyers: 83-101-94)
Firm ground definitely is what he needs, and Bejarano gets along with him best. Their only loss together was in the Breeders’ Cup.
The Pizza Man (Last 3 Beyers: 102-104-105)
The veteran stalwart of the Midwest has raised his profile this year with a win in the Arlington Million, a fine runner-up effort in the Shadwell Turf Mile, and a respectable fifth in the BC Turf.
He was third in this race last year, but he’s clearly a far superior runner in 2015.
Mike Smith will ride him for the first time, replacing longtime jockey Florent Geroux.
Up With the Birds (Last 3 Beyers: 103-93-101)
Although he’s won just once in the past two years, he comes off his best effort of the year, a second-place finish in the Canadian International at Woodbine.
He was fourth, 2 1/2 lengths behind The Pizza Man, in the Arlington Million. He is reunited for this race with Drayden Van Dyke, who rode him that day.
DRF FORMULATOR FACT: No. 2 Up With the Birds. Trainer Graham Motion is 44-12-4-3 with a $4.92 ROI over the past five years in turf route graded stakes of 12 furlongs and longer. Click for more details. – Mike Hogan
:: Learn more about Formulator | Buy Formulator PPs
:: Follow the @DRFFormulator Twitter feed and get free Formulator facts
Ganesh (Last 3 Beyers: 93-98-99)
He is winless in five starts since coming to the U.S. from South America, but he is one of the few proven at the distance, and he was a decent third behind Big John B in the Del Mar Handicap.
His last race, an optional claimer here Oct. 30, was strictly a prep, and the one-mile distance was far short of ideal. In that race, trainer Richard Mandella also had the middle-distance specialist Bal a Bali, who won.