Cabo Spirit to gun for lead in Del Mar Mile
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There is a measure of skepticism about Cabo Spirit’s chances in Saturday’s Grade 2 Del Mar Mile.
Cabo Spirit tends to set the pace, but he's not the early only runner in a field of 12 in the $300,000 Del Mar Mile on turf. Flyover, the winner of two stakes for California-breds on turf, and El Potente, the winner of two Grade 3 stakes, have been effective from the front.
Regardless of what the others may do, Cabo Spirit will be urged forward from an inside post at the start of the Del Mar Mile. The next half-mile is likely to produce anxious moments for trainer George Papaprodromou.
“Hopefully, he gets an easy lead, which I doubt,” Papaprodromou said earlier this week. “Hopefully they don’t go too fast out there and we’ll be okay. We’ll see how it unfolds. We’ll see how it goes out of the gate.”
Cabo Spirit, a 7-year-old gelding owned by Rustin Kretz, has won 7 of 43 starts and earned $1,430,856 in a career that began at Del Mar in the summer of 2021. Earlier in his career, Cabo Spirit was effective as a pacesetter as well as from off the pace, winning the Grade 3 La Jolla Handicap at Del Mar and the Grade 2 Twilight Derby at Santa Anita with a more patient style in 2022.
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In the last two years, Cabo Spirit has often been on the front early, which has led to wins in the Grade 2 John Henry Turf Championship at Santa Anita in the fall of 2024 and two Grade 3 stakes at Santa Anita last year – the American Stakes in April and the San Gabriel Stakes last December. The San Gabriel was Papaprodromou’s most recent stakes win.
Though winless in four starts this year, Cabo Spirit was a brilliant second, beaten only a nose, in the Grade 2 Eddie Read Stakes at 1 1/8 miles on turf at Del Mar on July 26. He held an early lead and lost the race in the final stride to Gold Phoenix.
“He ran a huge race and got beat at the wire,” Papaprodromou said.
The Eddie Read Stakes was the first start for Cabo Spirit since a third-place finish by three-quarters of a length in a tough allowance race at a mile on turf at Santa Anita on April 3. Papaprodromou said Cabo Spirit is “more ready” for the Del Mar Mile.
Whether Cabo Spirit can stalk a quick pace or be an early leader may be up to jockey Mike Smith, who has ridden the gelding in 10 of his last 12 starts.
“I’ll leave it up to Mike,” Papaprodromou said.
Through Wednesday, Papaprodromou had 37 wins this year. The biggest contributor to that tally has been the 6-year-old gelding Captain Choochies, a three-time winner from January to mid-March.
Owned by Kretz, Captain Choochies is entered in Saturday’s seventh race, an allowance at a mile on turf. Captain Choochies is entered to be claimed for $100,000 in his second start of the meeting. He was eighth in the restricted Wickerr Stakes at a mile on turf on July 19, racing near the front before fading through the stretch.
Captain Choochies won six consecutive races from September 2024 to March of this year, a streak that included a layoff of more than 14 months until December 2025, when he returned to win a starter allowance.
In Saturday’s race, Captain Choochies is likely to race near the front. The recent loss in the Wickerr is not a major concern considering Captain Choochies stumbled at the start and was hurried forward from the back of the field in the opening furlong.
“We had to force him to go get the lead,” Papaprodromou said. “If he breaks well, we can get an easy lead. He needs the lead and to be left alone.”
Setting the pace could be tough in a 12-runner field with other frontrunners like Charlie’s to Blame, who has finished second in allowance races on turf in his last two starts.
Papaprodromou has runners in five of the 11 races on Saturday. Through Wednesday, he was tied for third in the trainer standings with eight wins, nine behind leader Doug O’Neill. Papaprodromou led all trainers with 19 third-place finishers.
“If half of those thirds were winners, it would be great,” he said.