Vexatious, Cashman showing promise for Drysdale

DEL MAR, Calf. – Wednesday was an eventful afternoon for trainer Neil Drysdale’s stable.

Around noon, the 5-year-old horse Cashman arrived at Del Mar from a quarantine facility in Los Angeles. Cashman, a minor stakes winner in Germany last month, will have his American debut in Saturday’s Grade 2 Del Mar Handicap at 1 3/8 miles on turf.

Later on Wednesday afternoon, Drysdale won his first stakes of the Del Mar summer meeting when Vexatious (5-2) stormed past 1-2 favorite Queen Blossom in the final furlong to win her first stakes in the $75,754 CTT and TOC Stakes for fillies and mares.

The win left Drysdale hopeful Vexatious can develop into a contender for the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Churchill Downs on Nov. 3. The CTT and TOC Stakes was run at 1 3/8 miles, the same distance as the BC Filly and Mare Turf.

Ridden by Rafael Bejarano, Vexatious closed from last in a field of four, with a wide rally in the stretch.

“She wasn’t even blowing,” Drysdale said. “They just galloped around there.”

Owned by Calumet Farm, Vexatious has won 2 of 11 starts and earned $232,225. Drysdale said he would like to give Vexatious as many as two additional starts before the BC Filly and Mare Turf.

One option is the Grade 1 Rodeo Drive Stakes at 1 1/4 miles on turf at Santa Anita on Sept. 29. The winner of the $300,000 Rodeo Drive receives a fees-paid berth for the BC Filly and Mare Turf.

Last year, Vexatious raced primarily on dirt, finishing third in the Grade 2 Fair Grounds Oaks and the Grade 3 Fantasy Stakes at Oaklawn before a fourth-place finish in the Kentucky Oaks.

“She was knocking on the door the whole time,” Drysdale said.

Drysdale said he has wanted to try Vexatious in longer turf races for some time.

“I felt all of last year she was a mile-and-a-half horse,” Drysdale said.

Vexatious, by Giant’s Causeway, is out of Dream of Summer, the millionaire six-time stakes winner who has produced two graded stakes winners – Creative Cause, who earned $1,039,000 and was third in the 2012 Preakness Stakes, and Destin, who won the Grade 2 Marathon Stakes at Del Mar last November and earned $947,800.

Cashman, who races for the Team Valor International partnership, has won 4 of 18 starts, all in France and Germany. By Soldier of Fortune, Cashman was third in a Group 3 race in Dortmund, Germany, on June 24. On July 14, Cashman won a turf stakes at 1 3/16 miles at Dresden, Germany.

Cashman arrived in the United States on Monday and had his first exercise on the Del Mar main track on Thursday. Saturday, Cashman will carry 117 pounds in the Del Mar Handicap, six less than topweight Itsinthepost, who has won seven Grade 2 stakes in the last 17 months but was ninth in the Grade 2 Eddie Read Stakes here last month.

From Drysdale’s perspective, the $250,000 Del Mar Handicap is worth a try with Cashman.

“I think the distance grass horses are weak,” he said.

Drysdale has runners in two of the three stakes on Saturday’s 11-race program. In the Grade 1 Del Mar Oaks, he starts Californiagoldrush, who is unbeaten in two starts but has not raced since February.