Del Mar: Smith, Sutherland to compete in match race

Jockeys Mike Smith and Chantal Sutherland, who were once engaged, will compete in a match race at Del Mar on Aug. 7, the track announced Thursday.

Nicknamed the “Battle of the Exes,” the match race will be the first at Del Mar since Patrick Valenzuela beat Julie Krone by a nose in a 2003 race. The Smith-Sutherland match race will be part of Ladies Day at Del Mar and will be run over a mile or 1 1/16 miles.

Smith, 45, a Hall of Famer, is best known as the regular rider of Zenyatta. Sutherland, 35, who won the Santa Anita Handicap on Game on Dude in March, will ride at Del Mar for the first time this year on a regular basis. They appeared together a few years ago on the “Jockeys” television program, which, in part, chronicled their relationship.

Temple’s Door to run in Oceanside

Temple’s Door, who won two of his first three starts, is an expected starter in Wednesday’s $100,000 Oceanside Stakes for 3-year-olds at Del Mar, a race that may draw sufficient entries to be split into two divisions for the first time since 2008.

The race was divided into two divisions annually from 1989 to 2008 and into three divisions in 2007. More than 20 nominations were expected for this year’s race.

Temple’s Door may use the Oceanside over a mile on turf as a prep for the $400,000 Secretariat Stakes over 1 1/4 miles on turf at Arlington Park on Aug. 13, trainer Carla Gaines said.

“I think he’ll be suited for longer distances,” she said. “I think he continues to improve.”

Owned by Ingrid Truman, Temple’s Door was third in the Tsunami Slew Stakes at Hollywood Park on June 17, in his stakes debut.

The leading nominee for the Oceanside is Mr Commons, who was third in the Santa Anita Derby and eighth in the Preakness Stakes in his most recent start. Other nominees are Moment of Weakness, who has placed in four stakes; Fort Hastings, who placed in a group stakes in France last year; and Extensive, third in the Arlington Classic at Arlington Park on May 28.

There are six stakes on the opening week of the meeting, with the $300,000 Eddie Read Stakes over 1 1/8 miles on turf Saturday the most valuable.

Caracortado, second to Courageous Cat in the Shoemaker Mile at Hollywood Park on July 2, is among the expected runners, along with Celtic Princess, the mare who won the Grade 2 Royal Heroine Stakes at Hollywood Park on July 4.