Midnight Storm proves uncatchable in Del Mar Derby

DEL MAR, Calif. – For the first five starts of his career, Midnight Storm never set foot on turf. He won once. He was moved this summer to the barn of trainer Phil D’Amato, who tried him on grass in an allowance race on Aug. 10. He won. D’Amato is a college graduate, smart guy. He ran him back on turf again.

That came on Sunday, in the Grade 2, $300,000 Del Mar Derby, and Midnight Storm won again, leading from start to finish while taking advantage of an otherwise paceless race and rewarding pace players with a fat 17-1 payoff.

“I was so confident. I never had a horse train like he did,” said D’Amato, who touted the horse in the days leading up to the race, making the case that Midnight Storm had won that Aug. 10 allowance over a course not kind to his front-running style.

“That race didn’t take anything out of him,” D’Amato said. “He was primed to run his best.”

Midnight Storm ($36.60) and jockey Tyler Baze were left alone up front. They were able to set easy fractions of 24.24 seconds, 48.69, and 1:12.50 for the first six furlongs of the 1 1/8-mile race. At that point, no one else had a chance. Midnight Storm flew through the final three furlongs in 34.97 seconds to complete the distance in 1:47.47.

Sawyer’s Hill, second throughout, held on for second by a head over Talco. Sammy Mandeville was fourth and was followed, in order, by Home Run Kitten, Enterprising, Aventador, and Flamboyant.

Enterprising, the 8-5 favorite, was seeking a sweep of this track’s grass stakes for 3-year-olds, having won the Oceanside and La Jolla. But he got no help up front and never was in contention.

Midnight Storm, a colt by Pioneerof the Nile, is owned by his breeders, Marjorie Dye and Alex Venneri. First prize was worth $180,000, dwarfing the $105,810 he had made in his first six starts combined.