Talamo will skip honeymoon to ride Three Hearts in Red Carpet

DEL MAR, Calif. – Instead of going on a honeymoon the day after getting married, jockey Joe Talamo is going to work.

Talamo and Elizabeth Ellis, daughter of trainer Ron Ellis, are getting married on Friday night in San Diego. On Saturday, Talamo will head right back to work at Del Mar aboard Three Hearts, who will defend her title in the Grade 3, $100,000 Red Carpet Stakes for older fillies and mares at 1 3/8 miles on turf.

Three Hearts won the Red Carpet under Talamo at last fall’s meet here, scoring a 29-1 upset. She is winless in six starts since that race. Three Hearts was fourth on Nov. 7 here in the Kathryn Crosby, a 1 1/16-mile grass race that trainer Neil Drysdale said was designed as a tune-up for the Red Carpet two weeks later.

Drysdale also could run Energia Fribby, who finished last of seven in the Kathryn Crosby. Both worked on turf on Sunday morning. Three Hearts, working with the older male Power Foot, was given an official time of 1:28.80 for seven furlongs. Energia Fribby, working alone, was timed in 1:16.40 for six furlongs. The turf rails were out 30 feet from their innermost position, and orange cones, known was dogs, were placed farther out on the course, so all grass works were conducted closer to the outer rail than the inner rail.

A sizeable field is expected for the Red Carpet, including Beat of the Drum, Customer Base, Elektrum, Personal Diary, Star Act, Tiz Kissable, Trophee, and, possibly Button Down and Nashoba’s Gold, and either My Senses or Rusty Slipper.

Elektrum worked five furlongs on dirt at Santa Anita on Sunday in 1:02.20.

Personal Diary captured the Del Mar Oaks here in 2014, but is winless in eight starts since then.