Del Mar: Leparoux, Bejarano shine

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DEL MAR, Calif. - Julien Leparoux won the Oak Tree Juvenile Turf on Diamond Bachelor, then rode Tamarando to win the Del Mar Futurity, which gave him seven stakes wins for the meet, tops among riders in his first full season at Del Mar.

Leparoux relocated to Southern California one year ago after marrying the former Shea Mitchell, daughter of trainer Mike Mitchell.

The stakes successes are all the more impressive considering Leparoux missed local opportunities when traveling frequently to Saratoga this summer for mounts on horses like Sweet Lulu and Successful Dan.

Leparoux finished tied for fifth in the standings with Joe Talamo with 25 wins. Rafael Bejarano was the runaway leader with 46 wins. Martin Garcia was next with 28, and Edwin Maldonado and Victor Espinoza tied for third with 27.

This was the second straight title here for Bejarano, and his third overall.

John Sadler led all trainers with 27 wins to record his third training title here. Doug O’Neill finished second with 24 wins, one in front of Bob Baffert. Jerry Hollendorfer (20 wins) and Peter Miller (16) rounded out the top five.

The Hronis Racing stable of Kosta and Pete Hronis led all owners with purse earnings of $625,050, and the Hronises finished in a tie for most wins among owners, six, with both Nick Alexander and Kaleem Shah.

Game On Dude, winner of the Pacific Classic, was unanimously voted horse of the meet by media members.