Truly Quality has plenty of competition in Hollywood Turf Cup

Blue-collar geldings in a Grade 2 on turf, and a budding star in a first-level allowance for fillies and mares on dirt, command attention when closing weekend of the Del Mar autumn meet commences Friday.

For bettors, the most appealing race Friday is the 1 1/2-mile Hollywood Turf Cup. Contenders among 10 remaining entrants include favorite Truly Quality, upset candidate Dicey Mo Chara, and the Phil D’Amato-trained trio of Divin Propos, Balnikhov, and Rockemperor.

Race 8 offers less value, but plenty intrigue. The allowance dirt mile includes lightly raced maiden winner Accuracy, who ranks among the country’s fastest fillies. Accuracy, who earned a 107 Beyer Speed Figure crushing a maiden route at Santa Anita, is odds-on to win Friday.

The card also includes a showdown between above-average California-bred 2-year-old maidens in race 5. Miles Finch, an unlucky runner-up in his debut, stretches to a mile on turf seeking an upset over Grade 3-placed program favorite Sabertooth.

Friday’s marquee race is the $200,000 Hollywood Turf Cup, in which Truly Quality seeks his third straight stakes victory after wins at Colonial Downs and Woodbine. Truly Quality was an average allowance horse until spring, when trainer Jonathan Thomas stretched him to 1 1/8 miles and beyond.

“It’s kind of been a game changer for him, and it kind of coincided with his physical nature and just maturing,” Thomas said. “He’s a Quality Road, and they just seem to get better and better and better. He’s a gelding with a pedigree that wants to keep coming at you with time.”

Truly Quality has won 4 of 12 and is the only Hollywood Turf Cup starter entering off a stakes win. His five starts in long-distance races produced three wins, a second, and a third. Vincent Cheminaud rides Truly Quality for Thomas, who won with three of his last five Del Mar starters including the Grade 3 Red Carpet on Sunday.

Dicey Mo Chara has not won in nearly two years, but the 6-year-old gelding often finishes close. “He’s a blue collar-horse, he always shows up,” trainer Leonard Powell said. “He’s not a world-beater, but he’s always in the mix. It’s about getting the right trip with him.”

He did not get the right trip last time in the Grade 2 John Henry Turf Championship at Santa Anita. Dicey Mo Chara pressed a slow pace, did not quicken, and finished fourth by two lengths. “He doesn’t have a miler’s turn of foot,” Powell said. “At the three-eighths pole he needed to get going. Instead, my jockey waited to the quarter pole and he waited for everybody to make a move to start his move.”

Dicey Mo Chara returns Friday to the Del Mar turf on which he finished second in both Grade 2 starts in summer – the Del Mar Handicap and Eddie Read. After missing late 2023 and early 2024 due to body soreness, Dicey Mo Chara returned this year with a new lease on life.

“Last year, we gave him a break. It did him a lot of good,” Powell said. “He’s as good as he’s ever been and he’s reunited with Flavien [Prat], who he’s undefeated with.” Dicey Mo Chara is the 4-1 second choice on the morning line.

Among trainer Phil D’Amato’s trio, Divin Propos, the 5-1 third choice, seeks redemption after finishing sixth as the favorite the John Henry. The late-runner was compromised by the slow pace.

“He’s proven he likes Del Mar,” D’Amato said, referring to a second-level allowance win in the summer. “He still has to step up in class, in company, but he’s training very well.” Divin Propos was purchased at a European auction last year for $158,604 and makes his fifth U.S. start Friday. Umberto Rispoli rides the 4-for-11 gelding.

Rockemperor and Balnikhov exit the same slow-pace race as Divin Propos. “Draw a line through it; there was zero pace in that race and they kind of merry-go-rounded it,” D’Amato noted. “It was a totally paceless field and they were a victim of it, as were all the other closers.”

Balnikhov is a three-time Grade 3 winner; Rockemperor won the Grade 1 Turf Classic at Belmont Park in 2021. Others in the Hollywood Turf Cup field include Cabo Spirit, Fearless Soldier, None Above the Law, Nineeleventurbo, and Goldeneye. Rimprotector scratched.

Accuracy brings big Beyer

Accuracy’s 107 Beyer is the year’s second highest by a dirt filly. Thorpedo Anna earned a 111 finishing second in the Travers. In her third career start, Accuracy won by 15 lengths and stopped the clock in 1:42.44 for 1 1/16 miles.

“I was expecting a solid effort, I wasn’t expecting anything as eye-popping as that,” trainer Michael McCarthy said. McCarthy said he expected her to win, but admitted, “I was expecting her to win her first start. I was also expecting her to win her second start.”

Accuracy has trained well since her maiden romp. “She’s very easy, trains with purpose, very manageable, acts like she has a touch of class,” McCarthy said. Accuracy is by Arrogate, produced by graded winner Bickersons.

If she runs well Friday, McCarthy will consider shortening Accuracy to seven furlongs for the Grade 1 La Brea Stakes on Dec. 26 at Santa Anita. Rispoli rides Accuracy.

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