D'Amato finishing Del Mar meet with a flourish
DEL MAR, Calif. – Phil D’Amato is showing this summer at Del Mar that it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish.
D’Amato, who topped the trainer standings solo during the summer meet in 2015 and tied for the title in 2016, had an uncharacteristically chilly start to this year’s meet, winning with just one of his first 36 starters. But he’s turned it around of late. D’Amato has won with 13 of his last 54 starters to vault to a tie for third in the standings with 14 wins heading into the final week of the season.
And he has a chance to finish with a flourish. D’Amato will have runners in at least four and possibly five of the stakes from Friday through closing-day Monday, with multiple entries in at least two of them, perhaps even in the Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante, the championship race of the meet for 2-year-old fillies on Sunday.
D’Amato said his tale of two meetings at Del Mar was the result of running so aggressively at the end of Santa Anita’s meeting that many of his horses “were without a lot of conditions, and getting a lot of newer horses who weren’t going to be ready until the end of Del Mar.”
Still, 1 for 36 can weigh on anyone.
“We just had to find a path,” D’Amato said. “A lot was seeing how the main track and turf course played here versus Santa Anita, trying to figure it out, seeing where you can and cannot be on the turf course. Certain horses love it, certain horses won’t pick up their feet.”
He seems to have solved the puzzle. D’Amato’s three stakes wins in August included the Grade 1 Del Mar Oaks going long on turf with Going Global, as well as the Grade 2 Sorrento sprinting on dirt with Elm Drive and the Tranquility Lake going two turns on dirt with Miss Bigly. Elm Drive on Sunday will try to give D’Amato his first Debutante victory, and she could be joined by Ain’t Easy, who would be wheeling back 15 days after her debut victory.
Elm Drive earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 85 downing a stubborn Eda in the Sorrento. They finished more than 13 lengths in front of the rest of the field
“I thought it was a very professional win,” D’Amato said. “She fought off a foe the length of the stretch. It was a quality performance.”
Also Sunday, D’Amato will have at least two and perhaps three other 2-year-old fillies competing in the Del Mar Juvenile Fillies Turf. Helen’s Wells defeated maidens going a mile on turf in her first local start after one out in Ireland. Sax will try two turns and turf after chasing Elm Drive and Eda in the Sorrento. Sea Breezing, like Helen’s Wells an Irish import, also could go in what would be her U.S. debut.
D’Amato has another interesting Irish import set for the Del Mar Juvenile Turf on Monday in the gelding Silver Surfer, who made five starts overseas before arriving here earlier this summer.
“Training him on dirt, he was just a horse, but as soon as we worked him on grass he was a totally different horse,” D’Amato said.
D’Amato is hoping these newest imports can follow in the footsteps of Going Global, who had won just once in four starts in Ireland, but is 5 for 6, all in stakes, since coming here.
“We’ve had luck with Irish-breds, and English-breds,” D’Amato said. “There’s certain things you look for, styles that are conducive to the fast ground we have here.”
Showing off his bounty of 2-year-old fillies begins for D’Amato on Friday, with Carmen Miranda and Connie Swingle set for the Generous Portion for California-breds.
And on Saturday, D’Amato is considering whether to run Cathkin Peak and/or Coulthard in the Grade 2 Del Mar Derby. Cathkin Peak and Coulthard are both Irish imports who have taken well to racing in this country, with a combined record of four wins in six starts.
D’Amato’s multiple graded stakes-winning turf mare Charmaine’s Mia was not even nominated to the Grade 2 John Mabee on Saturday after tiring in the Grade 2 Yellow Ribbon on Aug. 7. She could cut back in distance and await the Grade 2 Eddie D against males on Oct. 1 at Santa Anita.
Charmaine’s Mia is one of those whom D’Amato found did not adjust to Del Mar. Fortunately for him, he found plenty others this summer who did.