Darya, The Padre will miss Del Mar meet
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Gold Phoenix will carry the Little Red Feather banner this summer at Del Mar, where he will seek his fifth consecutive win in the Grade 2 Del Mar Handicap. However, a pair of stakes winners co-owned by Little Red Feather and trained by Phil D’Amato will miss the summer season, according to Little Red Feather managing partner Billy Koch.
Darya, who won the $100,000 Honeymoon Stakes for 3-year-old turf fillies on June 6 at Santa Anita, and The Padre, a 4-year-old colt who won the Grade 2 Del Mar Derby last summer and recently finished third in the Grade 2 Charles Whittingham at Santa Anita, are sidelined with unspecified setbacks.
Darya has won 2 of 5; The Padre has won 3 of 6. Both are co-owned by Sterling Stable and Marsha Naify.
Grade 1 winner Thought Process, co-owned by Little Red Feather and winner of the Gamely on May 25 at Santa Anita, worked an easy half-mile for D’Amato on Monday at Santa Anita and is under consideration for a switch to dirt in the Grade 1 Clement L. Hirsch on Aug. 1 at Del Mar. The Grade 2 Yellow Ribbon Stakes, a turf race Aug. 8 at Del Mar, is the backup plan.
Clear and Present, Little Red Feather’s well-regarded 2-year-old colt who got sick and scratched from his scheduled debut June 12 at Santa Anita, has recovered. He worked three furlongs in 37 seconds on Sunday at Santa Anita and is expected to make his debut early in the Del Mar meet that begins July 17.
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