DEL MAR, Calif. – Shortly after he arrived in Southern California from Hong Kong in late 2019, jockey Umberto Rispoli set a goal of winning a riding title at Del Mar or Santa Anita.
Nearly six years later, Rispoli reached that achievement at the Del Mar autumn meeting that ended Sunday. Coincidentally, he is bound for Hong Kong this week to ride an international jockey competition at Happy Valley Racecourse on Dec. 10 and to ride at Sha Tin Racecourse on Dec. 14.
Great Venezuela, the queen of Gulfstream’s Tapeta track, returned home and got back to her winning ways when registering a 2 1/2-length victory in Sunday’s Islamorada overnight handicap.
The tally was the seventh in eight outings over the all-weather course for the 4-year-old filly who, like Reef Runner, made her previous start at Del Mar, where she finished fourth in the Sen. Ken Maddy Stakes on Oct. 31. That was the first and only time she has finished off the board in 16 lifetime starts.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Reef Runner returned to the work tab here Saturday for the first time since his fourth-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint. It must have been a warming thought for trainer David Fawkes, who sat shivering outside his barn at Churchill Downs awaiting the arrival of the van scheduled to take more than a dozen of his Kentucky-breds to Arkansas, where they will winter at Oaklawn Park.
Ted Noffey, the undefeated Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner and likely 2-year-old champion male, closed as the lowest-priced individual entry in the second Kentucky Derby Future Wager pool at 7-1, while the entry of “all other” horses was bet down to 2-1.
The pool, which opened Thursday and closed Sunday, was the second future wager connected to next year’s Derby to be offered. The “all others” entry was the 6-5 favorite in the first pool, which closed an hour prior to Ted Noffey winning the Juvenile. Ted Noffey closed at 10-1 in that pool.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Sunday’s closing day of the Del Mar autumn meeting begins with a carryover of $329,773 in the early 50 cent pick five.
The carryover was clinched when Call Sign Seven ($139) recorded a surprise win in Saturday’s fifth race, the Grade 2 Seabiscuit Handicap on turf.
The pool of new money on Sunday may exceed $2 million.
Unraced since a fourth-place finish as the 4-5 favorite in the $529,900 Virginia Derby in March, Getaway Car, a two-time stakes winner, starts in an allowance race at 6 1/2 furlongs at Del Mar on Sunday against a tough field.
Getaway Car is trained by Bob Baffert, who also runs Midland Money, a game second at 2-5 in an allowance race at six furlongs at Santa Anita on Oct. 26. Midland Money finished a neck behind Elwood Blues, who is part of Sunday’s allowance race, which drew a field of seven.
It may take the 29 races scheduled from Friday through Sunday at Del Mar to determine the leading rider of the autumn meeting.
Through Thursday, with three days of racing remaining, Umberto Rispoli led all riders with 14 wins, with Antonio Fresu (11), Mirco Demuro (10), Armando Ayuso (9) and Hector Berrios (8) rounding out the top five.
Juan Hernandez, who has won five consecutive riding titles at Del Mar’s summer and autumn meetings since the summer of 2023, has seven wins, leaving him in a tie for sixth-place with Tiago Pereira.
New York-based trainer Rudy Rodriguez could face penalties that include a suspension of his license and monetary fines after the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority [HISA], issued him a show-cause notice concerning a potential provisional suspension of his license.
Mrs. Astor, the five-time stakes winner, is nearing retirement in peak form.
Mrs. Astor won the Grade 3 Red Carpet Stakes for fillies and mares at 1 3/8 miles on turf at Del Mar on Saturday for the second consecutive year, the first time the race had a repeat winner since it was launched in 2014.
Trainer Jonathan Thomas said on Wednesday that Mrs. Astor will race again in coming months, perhaps twice, before she is sent to Kentucky to be bred.
Owned and bred by George Strawbridge Jr., Mrs. Astor has won 7 of 21 starts and earned $567,235.
Tom’s Magic has gone from an awkward colt at the start of his career to a three-time stakes winner in 2025, developing at such a pace that will start for the first time in a Grade 1 in Saturday’s $300,000 Hollywood Derby on turf at Del Mar.
Tom’s Magic won the minor Tale of the Cat Stakes on turf at Monmouth Park in late June, finished second in the famous King’s Plate Stakes at Woodbine on Aug. 26, and won the longest race of his career in the Breeders’ Stakes at 1 1/2 miles on turf at Woodbine on Sept. 28.
