Gonzalez sweeps weekend stakes

DEL MAR, Calif. – Santiago Gonzalez swept both of the stakes over the weekend and led all riders with eight victories through two weeks of racing at this fall meet.

Gonzalez won the Kathryn Crosby, a two-turn grass race, on Saturday with Full Ransom, then captured the Betty Grable, a dirt sprint, on Sunday with My Monet.

Jim Cassidy, the trainer of Full Ransom and an early champion of Gonzalez’s, said he was not sure where Full Ransom would run next. She is eligible to the Grade 1 Matriarch Stakes on Nov. 29, but Cassidy and owner Deron Pearson have the far more accomplished Prize Exhibit pointed for that. She won the Grade 2 San Clemente over this course in July.

Trainer Ricky Agarie said My Monet would get an extended break after an ambitious 2015 campaign that has seen her run 13 times.

“We’re going to give her a break and definitely space her races out next year,” Agarie said.

My Monet provided Agarie, 45, with his first stakes win. He is a longtime assistant who went out on his own one year ago.

◗ Seattle Serenade, listed as sold for $1 million as a yearling 26 months ago, finally gets to the races in Thursday’s first race, a 6 1/2-furlong maiden race for 3-year-olds and up. Seattle Serenade, a colt, is by Smart Strike and out of the Sovereign Award-winning mare Serenading, a daughter of A.P. Indy. Seattle Serenade is trained and owned in part by Jerry Hollendorfer.