DEL MAR, Calif. – Midnight Storm, a winner last time out in the Grade 1 Shoemaker Mile, will attempt to stretch his speed to 1 1/8 miles in the Grade 2, $250,000 Eddie Read Stakes for grass runners Sunday.
Trained by Phil D’Amato, Midnight Storm owns three wins in four starts over this course, with his lone loss coming in last year’s Eddie Read, which was run over a rain-softened course.
DEL MAR, Calif. – She’s Not Here, whose successful invasion of Del Mar last summer resulted in a pair of wins, will defend her title on Saturday in the Grade 2, $200,000 Yellow Ribbon Handicap, which is for female grass runners and the first graded stakes race of the meet.
She’s Not Here is seeking to turn around a year that has been disappointing thus far. She is winless in three starts and now has five losses – all out of the money – since her victory in last year’s Yellow Ribbon.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Vyjack, who made the first 25 starts of his career in the Eastern time zone, makes his first start on this circuit and for trainer Phil D’Amato in the $75,000-added Wickerr Stakes, the supporting feature on Saturday’s card.
Vyjack, 6, most recently was second in the Grade 3 Red Bank at Monmouth, his sixth start for Bill Mott, who took over from Rudy Rodriguez. D’Amato was sent Vyjack in mid-June. Vyjack worked three times at Santa Anita before heading to Del Mar.
“He’s ready to go,” D’Amato said.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Cheekaboo, the 23-1 upset winner of the Grade 2 Honeymoon at Santa Anita on June 19, tops the likely field for the $75,000-added Sandy Blue Handicap for 3-year-old fillies at 1 1/8 miles on turf Sunday.
Her rivals are expected to include Barleysugar, How Unusual, Lynne’s Legacy, Mirage, Nine Point Nine, Riri, and Sweet Halory. Corps de Ballet and Well Caught are possible.
When trainer Jamie Ness and Midwest Thoroughbreds ended their seven-year partnership in February, it reduced the size of Ness’s stable dramatically, and for the first time since 2007, he did not win the Tampa Bay Downs training title.
Fast forward five months, and Ness has pretty much rebuilt.
“Midwest had about 30 horses,” Ness said. “It pretty much cut me close to half. I have somewhere in the mid-70s now. It fluctuates. We have horses coming in and out, and we like to claim.”
Barbados will be getting a measure of class relief Saturday as the likely favorite in the $50,000 Don Bernhardt Stakes at Ellis Park in western Kentucky.
Barbados, a three-time stakes winner from 14 career starts, will be coming off losses in three straight graded stakes but appears to face considerably lighter company in the 6 1/2-furlong Bernhardt. The 4-year-old Barbados will have Joe Rocco Jr. aboard when breaking from the outside post in a field of eight.
Graham changes agents
DEL MAR, Calif. – First it was I’ll Have Another, then came Nyquist. With victories in the Kentucky Derby in two of the last four years, it’s no wonder trainer Doug O’Neill is getting more 2-year-olds from a wider array of clients, and he heads into this summer’s Del Mar meet, which opens Friday, with the likes of Stonestreet Stables, Calumet Farm, and Zayat Stables now in the fold.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Churchill Downs ended its spring meet July 2, but the impact of Kentucky racing started being felt that same day in other jurisdictions.
In an eight-day span (July 2-9), horses based at Churchill and nearby training facilities won more than a dozen stakes at other North American tracks in what amounts to a remarkable advertisement for racing in this state.
The forecast for weather and racing conditions favors the Del Mar summer meeting that begins Friday.
Turf racing resumes in Southern California following the closure of the Santa Anita course for renovation June 19. There are four turf races on Friday’s 10-race program.
The popular champions California Chrome and Beholder are scheduled to run in major stakes in July, building toward an expected first meeting in the $1 million Pacific Classic on Aug. 20. Those dates are circled on the calendars of their die-hard supporters.
Last winter, Trevor Denman traded Los Angeles-area traffic for a more tranquil pace on his Minnesota farm. Denman stunned Southern California racing when he announced his immediate retirement from calling the races at Santa Anita prior to the start of the track’s winter-spring meeting in December.
He did not call time on his career at Del Mar.
On Friday’s opening day of Del Mar’s summer meeting, Denman, 63, will be back in an announcer’s booth for the first time since last November. He said he will be ready to resume work and is a bit anxious following the lengthy break.
