Deep field hard to separate in Pat O'Brien Stakes
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DEL MAR, Calif. – It will not be easy to find the winner of the seven-furlong Grade 2 Pat O’Brien Stakes on Saturday at Del Mar. The deep field includes an array of horses with pros and cons.
Big City Lights has won six stakes, but he has been off three months and at age 7 would be the oldest horse to win the Pat O’Brien. Stronghold is the only Grade 1 winner, but he comes off a flat sixth-place finish and is stuck on the rail. Horse-for-course Dr. Venkman won the Pat O’Brien last year but finished off the board in both starts this year.
Ten are entered in the Pat O’Brien, which offers a fees-paid berth into the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile on Oct. 31 at Keeneland. Pat O’Brien entrants include Grade 1-placed late-runner Moonlight; stakes-winning comebacker Vodka Vodka; and potential pacesetter Gold Sweep, along with Bartholdy, Iron Man Cal, March of Time, and Jimmy’s Dailys.
Richard Mandella trains Big City Lights, whose 17 starts produced nine wins and four seconds. Nagging setbacks, including foot issues, prevent Big City Lights from extended campaigns. His most recent start was May 23; he has never raced more than three times without a layoff.
“You push when things are good, and you back off when they are not,” Mandella said. “He’s good again.”
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If so, Big City Lights is good enough. Third in the Pat O’Brien last year, Big City Lights is 2 for 2 this year and working fast for his comeback under Kazushi Kimura. A five-furlong workout in heavy fog on Aug. 23 was not recorded.
Since 2000, the Pat O’Brien attracted 20 veteran starters 7 years old or older. The highest finish was 2021 runner-up C Z Rocket.
Stronghold, the 2024 Santa Anita Derby winner and runner-up in the Pat O’Brien last summer, stretches out from a disappointing sixth in the Grade 1 Bing Crosby.
“I just think six furlongs was too sharp for him,” said Stronghold’s trainer, Phil D’Amato. “Antonio [Fresu] said he broke sharp, and he took him back, and he said that was a mistake. He just kind of ran in place.”
Fresu later told D’Amato the best sprint strategy for Stronghold is “let him go, let him do his thing, don’t try to take him back. Use that tactical speed and just let him place himself up there.”
Two starts back, Stronghold employed those tactics to win the seven-furlong Grade 3 Triple Bend over four rivals.
The field for the Pat O’Brien is deeper, and Stronghold must break from the rail. Four of the 11 winners of the Pat O’Brien since Del Mar reinstalled dirt broke from the rail, including Dr. Venkman last year.
This year, Dr. Venkman is a mystery. His off-the-board comeback in a Grade 3 at Churchill Downs was attributed to the wet surface, but his last-out fifth in the Bing Crosby was puzzling.
“He didn’t fire, just didn’t run his race,” trainer Mark Glatt said. “Just a little bit confused as to why he didn’t. Probably at this stage of his career, he does want to run a little farther [than six furlongs]. We’ll see about seven-eighths.”
Dr. Venkman’s rider is Umberto Rispoli. The gelding trained well coming out of the Bing Crosby and benefits by the longer distance.
The horse crying for the distance is Moonlight, purchased by owner Tom Kagele for $250,000 in early July at a Fasig-Tipton horses of racing age sale. Less than two weeks later, Kagele and trainer Peter Miller entered him in the Bing Crosby.
“I knew it was unorthodox to run him a week and a half after buying him out of a sale, but he was giving us all the signs that he was on point,” Miller said.
Moonlight ran accordingly.
Moonlight trailed early, was eighth and last at the quarter pole, then made up 10 lengths in the final quarter-mile to finish third, 1 1/2 lengths behind the winner, Listenupshance.
“We were very pleased, we wished it was six and a half,” Miller said.
Seven furlongs should be ideal for Moonlight.
Iron Man Cal shortens to seven furlongs after a creditable third going two turns in the Grade 2 San Diego Handicap. Iron Man Cal lost by three lengths while racing for the first time on dirt. His trainer believes the Pat O’Brien distance will be perfect.
“I think seven-eighths should be right up his alley. It might hit him right between the eyes,” D’Amato said. “He gave me a really great breeze” on Aug. 16.
Joel Rosario rides Iron Man Cal.
Stakes winner Vodka Vodka, who prefers two turns, is making his first start since April after his campaign was curtailed by a foot abscess. Gold Sweep, seventh in the Bing Crosby, is a potential pacesetter.
The Pat O’Brien is race 9 on a 10-race Saturday card.
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