Glen Hill Farm to have small stable at Del Mar with eyes on graded stakes
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Glen Hill Farm will have a small stable with trainer Tom Proctor at Del Mar this summer for the first time since 2018.
Owner Craig Bernick said Sunday that the stable plans to have approximately eight runners, many with recent starts at Gulfstream Park. The Del Mar meeting begins July 21 and continues through Sept. 10.
The group will include the fillies and mares Ocean Club, Muted, Wide West, and Paris Peacock.
Ocean Club, by Curlin, is a candidate for the Grade 2 San Clemente Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at a mile on turf on July 22 after a win in the Martha Washington Stakes at 1 1/16 miles on the all-weather track on June 10 at Gulfstream Park.
Wide West, an Irish-bred filly by Frankel, won the Roar Stakes at five furlongs on turf on May 20 at Gulfstream Park and may start in the $100,000 Daisycutter Handicap for fillies and mares at five furlongs on July 28.
Muted, an allowance race winner June 1 at Gulfstream Park, is a probable starter for the Grade 3 Rancho Bernardo Handicap for fillies and mares at 6 1/2 furlongs on Aug. 27. Paris Peacock, the winner of two minor stakes in Ireland last year, was second in the Monroe Stakes at 1 1/16 miles at Gulfstream Park in May and could start in an allowance race.
Bernick is taking a pragmatic approach regarding how those runners will fare in California.
“They’re in good form,” he said. “They found their form when the good stables left Florida. We’ll learn quickly how good they are.
“We’re on a fact-finding mission.”
Glen Hill Farm and Proctor have not had a runner at Del Mar since Summering finished sixth in the Grade 2 Yellow Ribbon Handicap in 2020, the stable’s only runner that season.
In the fall of 2018, Glen Hill Farm had a memorable Thanksgiving weekend at Del Mar, winning the Hollywood Turf Cup with Chicago Style and the Seabiscuit Handicap with Caribou Club. Proctor trained both.
Bernick said the stable left California in the summer of 2019, shortly after Santa Anita drew international news after a series of fatalities in racing or training.
“We had all our horses at Santa Anita in 2019 when all that went down,” he said. “We ruined some horses. You were never getting the same message from management as to what was going on.
“We said we’d come back if we had horses that fit. We’ll try this year. I don’t know how they’ll fit.”
Glen Hill Farm is a co-owner of Aspen Grove, the upset winner of the Grade 1 Belmont Oaks last Saturday at Belmont Park. Trained by Fozzy Stack, who is based in Ireland, Aspen Grove has been mentioned as a candidate for the Grade 3 Saratoga Oaks on Aug. 4 or the Grade 1 Del Mar Oaks on Aug. 19.
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