Del Mar Stable Notes July 20, 2017

By Dan Smith —-

OPENING DAY TAKE-AWAY: BEJARANO, PRAT ARE AT IT AGAIN

Flavien Prat won three of the first four races on Wednesday’s opening day card. Rafael Bejarano won the next three in a row then took the nightcap to assume the top spot in the jockey standings.
The ring of familiarity was absolutely deafening. Bejarano and Prat, co-champions of the 2016 Del Mar Summer Meeting, made it immediately known that they’re the ones to be reckoned with again this summer with first-day statements.

Then Thursday morning they both shrugged it off as all in an opening day’s work.

“We got lucky,” were the first words from Bejarano. “Everybody has to do their part. The stable crews take care of them, the trainers do their best to put horses in spots where they can win, then it’s up to the horses and riders.”

Bejarano has been the leading rider at Del Mar six times, the last five years in a row. He won two races on closing day of the 2016 meeting to one for Prat to forge the tie at 38 that kept the string going.

One could project from the way things played out on opening day that Bejarano, a 35-year-old native of Peru, responded with an “answer” to the early success of his French-born 24-year-old rival, Prat. And one would be wrong.

“I love to win races and see my name at the top of the standings,” Bejarano said. “But you have to take every race as it comes and just do the best you can.”

Their lockers in the jockeys’ room are not close together, so the riders rarely interact.

“Everybody is concentrating on their own business,” Prat said. “We don’t talk much. He had a good day and so did I. I thought before the races that I had some good shots and it worked out.

“The track is good. Everybody did a good job with it. I didn’t have horses where I had to come from behind much, so I don’t know about the kick-back. But I think all the jockeys were pleased.”
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STEVENS MAKES AGENT SWITCH TO JASON ORMAN

Hall of Fame jockey Gary Stevens has changed agents from Mike Ciani to Jason Orman.

Orman, 48, is the son of Mike Orman, who won five stakes at Del Mar between 1989-96. Jason was the initial trainer, later succeeded by Richard Mandella, of Rock Hard Ten, one of Stevens’ favorite horses. Rock Hard Ten finished second in the 2004 Preakness and went on to victories in the 2004 Swaps and Malibu Stakes and the 2005 Strub Stakes and Santa Anita Handicap.

“(Ciani) did a great job for me, we had a great Santa Anita meet but Jason and I have been friends for a long time and this is something we’ve talked about, so we’re moving on right now,” Stevens said.
“Jason and I go back to my riding in Washington and Canada days.”

While Orman has experienced a variety of other jobs in the industry, this is his first as an agent.
“I’m not worried about that at all,” Stevens said. “He’s a super likable guy, he’s sharp and he can read a condition book and watch a race. He’s a good businessman too, so he’ll be fine.”

“Gary had asked me a couple times if I wanted to be his agent and three or four days ago he asked me to come down here and I said OK, it’ll be something new.” Orman said.
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REMARKABLY DURABLE ROYAL F J TO MAKE 100TH CAREER START TODAY

He was a $110,000 purchase at the Keeneland sale as a yearling, a well-bred son of Royal Academy and the Kingmambo mare Perpetual Motion offered by Overbrook Farm in Kentucky.

He made his racing debut at Del Mar on August 22 of 2009 and had 98 more starts in the ensuing years.
Royal F J will make his 100th career start in today’s first race, a feat of durability that even the man who bought him as a yearling and has trained him for 86 of those 99 starts finds remarkable.

“He’s a well-made horse and has good conformation, and I think that’s why he has stayed sound for so long,” trainer Jack Carava said. “If he’d been a really hard-trying horse, he’d probably have made a million dollars early in his career and been done. But he’s the kind of horse that gives a three-quarter or so effort. He’s got more ability than he really gives, but he certainly gives enough to not be ashamed of himself. He runs decent races.”

It took Royal F J 10 starts to record his first victory, but he became stakes placed in his next start, finishing third to Twirling Candy in the 2010 Del Mar Derby.

Royal F J made four starts at age two and in subsequent years went to the post 10, 9, 13, 14, 13, 12, 15 and eight-times this year. Carava trained him from 2009-2015 before losing him to a claim but claimed Royal F J back after one race.

In Carava’s barn again from April of 2015 to March of last year, Royal F J was lost again via claim for another six months before coming home, this time to stay, Carava says, last October. Royal F J is owned by Chris Curtis, Carava and Howard and Janet Siegel.

“He ran real cheap up there ($8,000 claimer at Los Alamitos) so we decided to take him back and see if he still wanted to try and run good,” Carava said. “If he didn’t, then we’d just retire him.

“He trained well right away and acted like his old self. So we’ve continued to run him and he’s won a couple for us.”

Royal F J snapped a 21-race winless streak in a $10,000 claimer here last December 3 and has one win, at the $10,000 claiming level, in the eight starts this year.

His record: nine wins, 18 seconds, 18 thirds and $563,285 in earnings from 99 starts.

“He’s getting on in years, but he still gives it a try,” Carava said. “Hopefully he’s got a few more left in him, but at the first sign he doesn’t want to do it anymore, we’ll retire him.”

It’s not a new experience for Carava, 51, to be dealing with an older horse with a triple-figure list of races on his past performance chart.

“I’ve never had one that I’ve been this much involved with in their career. But I’ve claimed horses over the years that have run over 100 times,” Carava said. “I had a horse a few years back named I Dig You that ran, I think, 120-130 times.”

Martin Pedroza will be aboard Royal F J for the 10th consecutive time and the 49th overall. Today is also a milestone one for Pedroza. It marks his 52nd birthday.
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‘ASHLEY’ FAVORED IN EDDIE READ; ARROGATE 1-5 IN SAN DIEGO

Oddsmaker Russ Hudak made Ashleyluvssugar the 7-5 favorite in a field of seven for the $250,000 Eddie Read and Arrogate 1-5 for the $300,000 TVG San Diego Handicap on Saturday, Grade II stakes that are the first graded events of the summer meeting.

Ashleyluvssugar has two wins in three widely-spaced starts in 2017. The California-bred son of Game Plan, trained by Peter Eurton, took the California Cup Turf Classic in January, finished third in the Grade II San Luis Rey in March and won the Grade II Charles Whittingham in May, all at Santa Anita.
Ashleyluvssugar has 10 wins in 22 career starts and earnings of $1,289,004.

The field from the rail: Mr. Roary (Santiago Gonzalez, 10-1), Hunt (Flavien Prat, 3-1), Kenjisstorms (Rafael Bejarano, 5-2), Wanstead Gardens (Tyler Baze, 8-1), Up With The Birds (Jamie Theriot, 15-1), Ashleyluvssugar (Gary Stevens, 7-5) and Abbey Vale (Kyle Frey, 12-1).

The Eddie Read, 1 1/8-miles on the Jimmy Durante Turf Course and often the determiner of the grass horse of the meeting honor, goes as the fourth on a 10-race card.

Arrogate will be an odds-on favorite for the sixth time in nine races. The only exceptions were when he was dispatched at nearly 12-1 in a 13 ½ length victory in the Travers last August and nearly 2-1 behind California Chrome in the Breeders’ Cup Classic.

The San Diego field from the rail: Accelerate (Victor Espinoza, 8-1), El Huerfano (Evin Roman, 12-1), Arrogate (Mike Smith, 1-5), Donworth (Mario Gutierrez, 10-1), Cat Burglar (Rafael Bejarano, 10-1) and Dalmore (20-1).

The San Diego is the ninth race on the program.

Arrogate backtracked from the backstretch chute to the starting gate set at the 1 ¼ mile chute Thursday morning then broke from the gate at a gallop under exercise rider Dana Barnes. They maintained the pace for 1 ½ laps of the one-mile oval, Arrogate looking fit and ready for the Saturday race.
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BELVOIR, IKE GUESTS FOR INITIAL WEEKEND HANDICAPPING SEMINARS
Trainer Vann Belvoir and handicapper Bob Ike will be the guests providing expert selections and incites at the first weekend handicapping seminars of the meeting.
Belvoir will be featured in the Saturday morning program while Ike takes the seat next to host Scott Shapiro on Sunday.
The seminars are held from 12:45-1:30 at the seaside terrace near the top of the stretch.
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CLOSERS – Spotted on Opening Day social media: Patrick Valenzuela, 10th all-time on the Del Mar list of stakes-winning jockeys with 68, dressed to the nines and enjoying the scene in the turf club. P Val is also touting an appearance later this month at the Lake Elsinore Hotel and Casino … Trainer Kenny Black said What A View, recent winner of the Crystal Water Stakes at Santa Anita, is being given time off with the prospect of returning in the fall … Selected works from 145 on dirt and eight on turf Thursday morning: Dirt – Go On Mary (4f, :46.60), It Tiz Well (4f, :51.00), Big John B (5f, 1:00.80), Faypien (5f, :59.20), Paradise Woods (5f, 1:00.60), Prize Exhibit (5f, 1:00.40), Avenge (6f, 1:12.60), Infobedad (6f, 1:11.80), Shenandoah Queen (6f, 1:11.80), American Anthem (7f, 1:23.80), Battle of Midway (7f, 1:26.40), Beach Bum (7f, 1:26.20); Turf — Collected (5f, 1:04.20), Om (5f, 1:04.80), Bal a Bali (6f, 1:15.20).