Drefong heads strong cast expected for Bing Crosby Stakes

DEL MAR, Calif. – The Grade 1 Bing Crosby Stakes at six furlongs at Del Mar on July 29 should be the best sprint of the year in California.

As of Friday, the $300,000 Bing Crosby had nine probable starters led by Drefong, the champion sprinter of 2016 who won the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Santa Anita last November in his most recent start. Other candidates include Big Macher, Kobe’s Back, Lord Simba, Moe Candy, Ransom the Moon, Roy H, Solid Wager, and St. Joe’s Bay.

The Bing Crosby Stakes is the leading sprint of the Del Mar summer meeting. The winner receives a fees-paid berth in the BC Sprint here on Nov. 4.

Big Macher won the 2014 Bing Crosby Stakes and the Thor’s Echo Handicap for California-breds at Santa Anita on June 11 in his first start in more than 18 months. Lord Simba won the Grade 3 Los Angeles Stakes in his stakes debut at Santa Anita in April and was third behind Ransom the Moon and Moe Candy in the Grade 2 Kona Gold Stakes at Santa Anita in May.

Roy H, trained by Peter Miller, won the Grade 2 True North Stakes at Belmont Park on June 10. Miller is also planning to start St. Joe’s Bay, who won the Grade 2 Palos Verdes Stakes at Santa Anita in February and was fourth in the $2 million Golden Shaheen in Dubai in March, and possibly Solid Wager, who was eighth in the Grade 1 Metropolitan Mile Handicap at Belmont Park on June 10.