DEL MAR
Sunday, Oct. 26
Weather: Cloudy 
Temp.: 60 
Track: Fast 
Turf: Firm

DEL MAR, Calif. - Desert Gate, winner of the Grade 3 Best Pal Stakes and runner-up in two Grade 1 stakes in California, is out of Friday’s $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, trainer Bob Baffert told the Breeders’ Cup notes team on Saturday. 

“He’s got an infection on his hock and we had to treat it with antibiotics,” said Baffert, who was planning to work the horse on Sunday. “He is going to be Ok, but he is not going to run.” 

Total handle at the Keeneland fall meet set a record at $217.6 million, according to an analysis by Daily Racing Form, despite slight drops in field size and the number of turf races the track offered during its 17-day meet, which closed on Saturday.

The total handle was a 3.5 percent jump over last year’s handle of $210.4 million. Keeneland offered the same number of races during both fall meets, and average handle per race also jumped 3.5 percent, to $1,351,808.

DEL MAR, Calif. - It is only 69 miles between Keeneland and Churchill Downs in Kentucky. Jose Ortiz, who rode at Keeneland on Saturday and was to ride at Churchill Downs on Sunday afternoon, took a pretty significant detour. 

Ortiz flew from Lexington to San Diego on Saturday night, and early Sunday morning at Del Mar he climbed aboard Journalism to put his recently acquired Breeders’ Cup Classic mount through his final workout prior to Saturday’s $7 million race. 

West Virginia Racing Commission stewards have issued a 10-year suspension to jockey Marshall Mendez after ruling the rider possessed an illegal electrical device on Oct. 11, the night of the track’s West Virginia Breeders’ Classic program.

Marcus Jody, Mendez’s agent, declined to comment, but said the 30-year-old jockey plans to appeal within the 20-day window provided by state law.

Del Mar
Saturday, Oct. 25
Weather: Cloudy
Temp: 60 degrees
Track: Fast

DEL MAR, Calif. – For the second consecutive morning, trainer Michael McCarthy dominated the Breeders’ Cup work tab at Del Mar, sending out three of his Breeders’ Cup contenders to breeze here Saturday over a fast main track. The turf course was also open for business for the first time this week, with Ag Bullet the only horse to take advantage of the opportunity to work on the grass.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Full Serrano was a relatively handy winner of last year’s Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile at healthy odds of 13-1. He won’t be nearly that price when he seeks a repeat victory against two other Breeders’ Cup winners and a Kentucky Derby winner in the $1 million Dirt Mile. 

“Somebody said where is he at compared to last year? I think he’s the same maybe a smidge better,” trainer John Sadler said. “He’s going to have to be.” 

ARCADIA, Calif. – Big City Lights will start in his first Grade 1 in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Del Mar after a series of fast workouts.

On Saturday at Santa Anita, Big City Lights zoomed five furlongs in 58 seconds. The time was close to expectations for a 6-year-old horse who has not raced since a win by 7 3/4 lengths in the California Cup Sprint for statebreds at six furlongs at Santa Anita on Jan. 18, trainer Richard Mandella said.

“He hasn’t run in awhile,” Mandella said. “We wanted him to do something.”

ARCADIA, Calif. – Gold Phoenix has had three races on his annual calendar since 2022.

He has won the Grade 2 Del Mar Handicap in late August or early September annually since 2022, and has run with mixed results since then in the Grade 2 John Henry Turf Championship at Santa Anita in advance of the Breeders’ Cup Turf.

Gold Phoenix became the first four-time winner of the Del Mar Handicap on Aug. 30. He followed with a first career win in the John Henry Turf Championship on Sept. 27 after finishing third in the race in 2022, and fifth in 2023 and 2024.

ARCADIA, Calif. – No one has tried Sovereignty more than Baeza. Few have come closer to beating Sovereignty than Baeza did when he finished just one length behind him in the Jim Dandy Stakes at Saratoga in July. 

Next Saturday, Baeza will take a fourth crack at Sovereignty in the $7 million Breeders’ Cup Classic at Del Mar.