Gold Phoenix goes for four-peat in Del Mar Handicap
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Gold Phoenix has won the Grade 2 Del Mar Handicap for the last three consecutive years, often in a dramatic way.
Gold Phoenix won the first stakes of his career in the 2022 Del Mar Handicap with a six-wide move, prevailing by a head. A year later, he overcame traffic and a wide trip to win by 1 1/4 lengths. Last year, Gold Phoenix rallied on the inside to win by a neck.
Now 7, Gold Phoenix starts in Saturday’s $300,000 Del Mar Handicap at 1 3/8 miles on turf with race history on his side but after a slightly disrupted summer campaign. Gold Phoenix missed a scheduled start in the Grade 2 Eddie Read Stakes on July 27 at Del Mar after sustaining a scratch on a pastern, trainer Phil D’Amato said at the time. He recovered quickly to finish third in a tough allowance race at a mile on turf Aug. 8, a distance shorter than his best trip.
The third-place finish has left D’Amato optimistic that Gold Phoenix can end a five-race losing streak since the 2024 Del Mar Handicap, the longest the gelding has gone between wins in his 26-race career, which began in Ireland in 2021.
“I wanted a prep race in order to be full cranked for the Del Mar Handicap,” D’Amato said this week. “I thought he got a pretty useful prep. He’ll get the distance that he prefers.”
Gold Phoenix will be tested by a strong group of 10 rivals. There are six other graded stakes winners in the lineup – Atitlan, Balnikhov, Endlessly, Nitti, Stay Hot, and Truly Quality.
Of the others, Final Boss won the 2024 Cinema Stakes at Santa Anita and starts in the longest race of his career in the Del Mar Handicap. Mondego was third in the Grade 1 Belmont Derby in 2023 and won an allowance race at 1 3/8 miles at Del Mar on turf on Aug. 2. Adios Cole, who has placed in a stakes, and City Exile, second in an allowance race on Aug. 15, will be longshots.
The Del Mar Handicap is the final race on an 11-race program that begins at 1:30 p.m. Pacific. The winner receives a fees-paid berth to the Breeders’ Cup Turf on Nov. 1 at Del Mar. Gold Phoenix was 10th in the 2022 BC Turf at Keeneland and has finished fourth in the last two runnings at Santa Anita in 2023 and at Del Mar last year.
Gold Phoenix will be ridden by Saratoga-based Flavien Prat, who rode him in the 2022 Del Mar Handicap. Prat replaces Kyle Frey, who was aboard Gold Phoenix in the 2024 Del Mar Handicap.
Prat “was available,” D’Amato said. “He won a Del Mar Handicap on him. We wanted to see if he’s the difference maker. Nothing against Kyle Frey. He’s done a superb job with him.”
Gold Phoenix, who races for the partnership of Agave Racing, Little Red Feather Racing, Sterling Stable, and Marsha Naify, drew the outside post, which should not be an issue considering his closing style. Final Boss is expected to lead. Stay Hot, who won the Texas Turf Classic at 1 1/8 miles from the front on June 28 at Lone Star Park and was third in the Eddie Read, will be close to the front in the longest race of his career.
The race distance works for Nitti, who won the Grade 3 San Juan Capistrano Stakes at about 1 3/4 miles on turf in his last start on June 15 at Santa Anita, and for Atitlan, winner of consecutive turf stakes at Santa Anita in the spring – the Grade 3 San Luis Rey Stakes at 1 1/2 miles in March and the Grade 2 Charles Whittingham Stakes at 1 1/4 miles on May 3.
Atitlan later finished a fast-closing fifth by 1 1/2 lengths as an 18-1 outsider in the Grade 1 Shoemaker Mile. Atitlan races for John O’Connor and trainer John Shirreffs, and he is a half-brother to Astronaut, who won the 2021 Del Mar Handicap.
Atitlan missed the Eddie Read after kicking a wall on the backstretch, an incident that resulted in a bruised foot, trainer John Shirreffs said.
“It would have been perfect to run in that race,” Shirreffs said. “He’s trained very well. If he’s fit enough, I think he’ll run really well.”
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