Going Global favored for good reason in Yellow Ribbon Handicap
Going Global is in a familiar spot in Saturday’s Grade 2 Yellow Ribbon Handicap for fillies and mares at Del Mar.
For the ninth time since her arrival from Ireland in the winter of 2020-21, Going Global will be favored. A 4-year-old, Going Global has won 6 of 8 races as the favorite in that span, but has lost two of her last three starts.
Going Global was third in the Grade 1 Gamely Stakes at 1 1/8 miles on May 30 at Santa Anita as the 4-5 favorite, a race she seemed poised to win with a furlong remaining. After racing between runners on the backstretch and turn of the turf race, Going Global was well positioned to display a familiar rally that had led to seven stakes wins in the preceding 15 months.
The winning kick did not materialize. Going Global finished third by 1 1/2 lengths to winner Ocean Road, who has since been retired.
“She ran a good race last time in a Grade 1,” trainer Phil D’Amato said Thursday. “You can see she was in tight in a couple of spots. I think if we could do things over we probably would.”
Going Global is the 125-pound topweight in a field of seven in the $250,000 Yellow Ribbon Handicap at 1 1/16 miles on turf, carrying five to seven pounds more than her rivals.
There are three other 2022 stakes winners in the field – Park Avenue, who won the Ouija Board Distaff on May 30 at Lone Star Park; Avenue de France, second in the Ouija Board and the winner of the restricted Osunitas Stakes on July 23 at Del Mar; and Flippant, a stakes winner in a dead heat July 9 at Horseshoe Indianapolis.
This is a pivotal race for Going Global, and a chance for the partnership of Michael Dubb, Michael Nentwig, Saul Gevertz, Ray Pagano, and John Rochfort and D’Amato to assess the filly’s summertime form and how she will be raced this fall.
Her record on Del Mar’s turf course provides ample comfort. Going Global won the Grade 1 Del Mar Oaks and Grade 2 Goldikova Stakes, and was a second in the Grade 2 San Clemente Stakes, all at Del Mar in 2021.
“She likes it down here,” D’Amato said. “She gets to breeze on turf. It’s all systems go.
“I expect her to run her race. This is a little easier group.”
Umberto Rispoli, who rode Going Global to a win in the Grade 2 Royal Heroine Stakes at Santa Anita in April, regains the mount from Flavien Prat, who is riding at Saratoga. Rispoli is likely to have Going Global in her customary tracking position, with Park Avenue likely to lead.
Park Avenue won an allowance race at Santa Anita in her turf debut in March.
“She’s 2 for 2 on the turf,” trainer John Sadler said. “I think I found out what she does best. She trains good on the dirt, but is much improved on the turf.”