True Royalty and Van Dyke surge to Torrey Pines victory

DEL MAR, Calif. – Jockey Drayden Van Dyke has hooked himself into all the top barns this summer at Del Mar, winning races for Peter Miller, Bob Baffert, and Jerry Hollendorfer, but his greatest stakes successes the first six weeks of the meet have come with trainer John Sadler. They took down another on Sunday when True Royalty scored a 3 1/2-length victory in the Grade 3, $101,725 Torrey Pines Stakes for 3-year-old fillies.

The win was the fifth stakes Van Dyke has had in concert with Sadler - scoring previously with Catapult and Catalina Cruiser, both of whom won two stakes this summer – and the meet-leading ninth overall for Van Dyke, who will head into the final six days of the meet atop the jockeys’ standings.

If he prevails, it would be his first Del Mar title.

“I don’t want to count my eggs before they’re hatched,” Van Dyke said Sunday minutes after True Royalty’s win.

If Van Dyke keeps getting put on live horses such as True Royalty, he’ll be in good shape. True Royalty ($19.20) was drawn widest in the 10-horse field in the one-mile Torrey Pines, and though she had to go wide throughout, she was unencumbered by some traffic that developed inside of her on the first turn, and she ended up in an ideal stalking position heading into the far turn.

True Royalty surged to the lead on the far turn, put away Thirteen Squared and then Broome heading to the quarter pole, and was never threatened through the lane.

Just Grazed Me, the 2-1 favorite, ran on for second after getting knocked around in traffic on the first turn before having to rally wide. She finished 2 1/2 lengths in front of third-place Spring Lily, then came, in order, Broome, Lemoona, Zusha, Aunt Lubie, Royal Descendent, Well Hello, and Thirteen Squared.

True Royalty completed one mile on the fast main track in 1:39.07

Van Dyke said he had talked to Sadler on Sunday morning and they agreed the key to the race was going to be the first turn.

“I wanted to break good and try to get over,” Van Dyke said. “I was loaded around the first turn. I was trying to get her off the bit. She was pretty keen. She relaxed a bit around the half-mile pole.”

True Royalty, a daughter of Yes It’s True, has now won three times in seven starts. This was her first stakes victory. She earned $60,000 and now has career earnings of $154,510 for her owner, Joanne Batchelor.