Shadow of Breeders' Cup looms over opening-day card
Del Mar is rich with storylines on Wednesday, opening day of a four-week fall season highlighted by the two-day Breeders’ Cup extravaganza on Friday and Saturday.
A natural inclination is to gloss over Wednesday and commence focus on Breeders’ Cup weekend – five BC races for 2-year-olds Friday, nine BC races Saturday including the $6 million Classic. Yet even the weekday Wednesday card includes Breeders’ Cup nuance.
A race-2 filly might validate a BC Juvenile Fillies Turf contender. Race 6 includes the card’s most probable winner for a powerhouse trainer-jockey duo who team Saturday with a BC Turf favorite. As for the race-7 feature, it is led by a graded stakes-winning comebacker whose campaign ended before an Oaks or BC Distaff could be considered.
First post is 12:30 p.m. opening day of the autumn Bing Crosby season, the meet that filled a void in the racing calendar when Hollywood Park closed in 2013. Trainer Richard Mandella described the importance of Del Mar fall in one simple word – “Survival.”
“You lose Hollywood Park, and race too long at Santa Anita,” Mandella said. “Being able to come down here in November is a treasure. I think [Del Mar fall] is part of what is saving California racing.”
Del Mar opens with a five-day week that includes Breeders’ Cup, followed by a pair of Friday-through-Sunday weeks. The meet ends with a four-day week from Thanksgiving though Sunday, Nov. 28, and includes two Grade 1’s on turf – the Hollywood Derby on Nov. 27 and the Matriarch Stakes closing day. Los Alamitos opens Dec. 3 for two weeks.
Mandella plans to start United in the BC Turf on Saturday; his attention Wednesday is on Moonlight d’Oro in the $100,000 Seashell Stakes for fillies and mares at a mile on dirt. Moonlight d’Oro was sidelined with a knee chip after she won the Grade 3 Las Virgenes in February at Santa Anita.
“She looked good then, she looks good now,” Mandella said. “She’s had some good works. I think she’s ready for a big effort.”
Flavien Prat rides the 3-year-old Moonlight d’Oro, who will be facing older for the first time.
The Seashell field includes stretch-out sprinter Livingmybestlife, stakes-placed Paige Anne, Clockstrikestwelve, Lisette, and Miss Fia. One notable absence is graded stakes winner Harvest Moon, last year’s BC Distaff fourth-place finisher, who was targeting a Wednesday return after she bled in April in her most recent start.
Harvest Moon, however, bruised a foot last weekend and did not enter. The untimely setback was minor, according to trainer Simon Callaghan. “It’s possible she’ll be back breezing on the weekend,” he said.
Callaghan will start Paige Anne, who with Clockstrikestwelve was scheduled to run Oct. 24 in an allowance race at Golden Gate Fields before racing was canceled due to high winds. The Seashell is a backup for Paige Anne and Clockstrikestwelve.
The race also is backup for front-running sprinter Livingmybestlife.
Livingmybestlife is 3 for 5 with a stakes victory since trainer John Sadler claimed her for $50,000 from a runner-up debut in April at Oaklawn Park. A two-turn race was not the original plan for Livingmybestlife, who was originhally intended for a sprint at Santa Anita that did not fill, Sadler said.
“Well, she’ll be in front,” Sadler said.
No kidding. Livingmybestlife set the pace each of her last five starts, all sprints, and Sadler preferred to keep her short.
“She tries hard,” he said. “We’ll see how far she can carry her speed.”
If Livingmybestlife somehow wires the field, it could be an early indication that speed is an asset on the main track. Echo Zulu, early favorite in the BC Juvenile Fillies, and Corniche, early second choice in the BC Juvenile, both are front-runners.
In race 2 Wednesday, juvenile filly Sparkle Blue runs a mile on turf in an entry-level allowance. Graham Motion trains Sparkle Blue, a troubled fourth in the Selima Stakes at Laurel Park won by Consumer Spending, who runs Friday in the BC Juvenile Fillies Turf.
:: Join DRF Bets and play the races with a $250 First Deposit Bonus. Click to learn more.
In race 6, Nazuna is expected to start favored in an entry-level allowance turf mile for 3-year-old fillies. Her trainer-jockey combo has been sizzling the past year. Chad Brown and Flavien Prat are 14 for 30 on turf during that period. They also combine Saturday with Domestic Spending in the BC Turf.
Race 4, a Cal-bred allowance turf mile, does not have Breeders’ Cup repercussions, only a memory. Dr. Troutman is likely to set the pace; he is trained by Jerry Hollendorfer. Exactly four years ago Wednesday, on Nov. 3, 2017 at Del Mar, Hollendorfer won the BC Dirt Mile with Battle of Midway.