Cambodia repeats in Yellow Ribbon

DEL MAR, Calif. – Halfway through Saturday’s Grade 2 Yellow Ribbon Handicap at Del Mar, Cambodia was fifth in a field of 11, a few lengths behind the pace. Race strategy was unfolding as intended.

“I was smiling when I got to the backstretch,” jockey Drayden Van Dyke said. “It set up perfectly. I could move when I wanted.”

Through the turn, Cambodia advanced steadily on the leaders. When Van Dyke urged Cambodia, the 6-year-old mare rallied to take a convincing lead.

“When I got to ask her in the lane, she took off,” he said.

Cambodia had a two-length lead with a furlong remaining, the closest her rivals were to the front in the stretch. Sent off favored, Cambodia ($5.40) won by 2 1/2 lengths over 9-2 Madame Stripes, who finished a head in front of a fast-closing Sophie P, a 14-1 chance who won the Grade 1 Gamely Stakes at Santa Anita in May.

Cambodia ran 1 1/16 miles in 1:40.51 and earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 95. She won the Yellow Ribbon for the second consecutive year for owner Don Robinson’s Winter Quarter Farm and trainer Tom Proctor.

Cambodia won the Yellow Ribbon and Grade 2 John Mabee Stakes here last summer and was later third in the Breeders Cup Filly and Mare Turf in November over a course she obviously adores. Robinson and Proctor wanted to take advantage of that familiarity by sending the mare back to Del Mar this summer.

The Yellow Ribbon was Cambodia’s third start of the year, preceded by a sixth in the Grade 1 Jenny Wiley Stakes at Keeneland in April and a seventh, by two lengths, in the Grade 1 Just a Game Stakes at Belmont Park on June 9.

When the field turned into the stretch, Robinson knew he and Proctor had made the right decision.

“I was thrilled,” he said. “I was hoping, the way she had been training, that she’d have that kick.”

Cambodia beat a field that included six stakes winners this year. Hallie Belle finished fourth, followed by Storm the Hill, Midnight Crossing, Pantsonfire, Beau Recall, Sassy Little Lila, Tisbutadream, and Ancient Secret.

Fahan Mura, the winner of the restricted Osunitas Stakes here on July 20, was withdrawn on Friday.

Cambodia, by War Front, has won 7 of 18 starts and earned $778,913. The Yellow Ribbon was her fourth stakes win and first since the Mabee. The 2018 Mabee Stakes is scheduled for Sept. 1 and is under consideration, Robinson said.