Del Mar Stable Notes November 14, 2019

DMTC News – From the Wire —-

Bob Baffert; DMTC File Photo

BAFFERT AND O’NEILL TAKE A DOUBLE DIP OF HOPE

Hall of Famer Bob Baffert and six-time Del Mar training champion Doug O’Neill have double entries to comprise two-thirds of the field of six for Saturday’s $100,000 Bob Hope, the first graded stakes of the Bing Crosby meeting.

Baffert has entered High Velocity and Thousand Words, both winners in racing debuts in October at Santa Anita for the seven-furlong Grade III event for 2-year-olds.

O’Neill’s duo is Howbeit and Strongconstitution.

Howbeit, a Kentucky-bred son of Secret Circle owned by the C T R Stable, broke his maiden at Los Alamitos in September at 5 ½ furlongs in his fourth start and followed that up with a six furlong victory last month at Santa Anita.

Strongconstitution, a son of Constitution owned in partnership by Roadrunner Racing and SayjayRacing, debuted with a front-running victory at five furlongs on turf at Del Mar on August 23 and returned with a runner-up effort, beaten a neck by Fore Left, in the 6 ½-furlong Sunny Slope Stakes in October at Santa Anita.

Strongconstitution should have run on Monday, Veteran’s Day, don’t you think?” O’Neill assistant Leandro Mora said Thursday morning. “But, no racing.

“In our opinion he’s the one to beat, but you never know. We were thinking of running Howbeit in a (lower level) race but Doug and the owners saw that this one was not filling, so they decided to take a shot.

“He (Howbeit) is a good horse. He’s moving up the ladder and learning.”

The field from the rail: Rager (Martin Garcia, 12-1), Howbeit (Rafael Bejarano, 12-1), Thousand Words (Flavien Prat, 7-5), Zimba Warrior (Jose Valdivia, Jr., 12-1), High Velocity (Drayden Van Dyke, 5-2) and Strongconstitution (Abel Cedillo, 9-5).
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‘CUP RUNNER MO SEE CAL MAY GO IN SUNDAY’S BETTY GRABLE STAKES

Mo See Cal, a four-year-old filly who attended the pace in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Distaff before finishing sixth of 11 against the top female runners in the world, was among a field of seven entered Thursday for Sunday’s $100,000 Betty Grable Stakes.

Trainer Peter Miller entered Mo See Cal, Creative Instinct and Love a Honeybadger in the seven-furlong main track test for older fillies and mares, but that only two of the three will make the starting gate.

“I’m not going to run Creative Instinct and Honeybadger because they’re both speed horses,” Miller said. “I’ll run one of them and Mo See Cal.

Owned in partnership by Rockingham Ranch and David Bernsen, Mo See Cal is a California-bred daughter of Uncle Mo who has a career record of 5-4-1 from 17 career starts and earnings of $273,664. She has two wins in six starts at Del Mar and has only been out of the money once here.

At the summer meeting, Mo See Cal was fourth under the wire but moved up to Third via disqualification in the Solana Beach Stakes on turf on August 9 and came back 13 days later to finish second in an allowance race over the Grable surface and distance.

The post position draw was later Thursday: The field, in alphabetical order: Coco Kisses, Creative Instinct, Love a Honeybadger, Mo See Cal, Queen Bee To You, Show It N Moe It and Starr of Quality.
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EURTON CALM BEFORE POTENTIAL STORM THE COURT HURRICANE

As a consequence of Storm The Court’s victory in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile on November 1 at Santa Anita, the Peter Eurton-trained colt will be one of, if not the early favorites for the 2020 Kentucky Derby. Even though the win, under jockey Flavien Prat, was at odds of 45-1 and came after even-money favorite Dennis’ Moment was eliminated by a stumble coming out of the gate.

Eurton, who saddled the winners of the first (Octopus, $3.60) and last (Royal Act, $7.20) races on Sunday, said he is prepared to face the consequences – which mostly come in the form of intense media attention and scrutiny – with a smile.

“It feels pretty good,” Eurton said Sunday. “Not that he’ll be the favorite, but that he came out of the race in good shape and is doing really well.

“(Storm the Court) is just chilling right now. We’ll be tack-walking him for a little while and then get together with the owners and decide what’s next. I don’t think the Santa Anita Stakes book has come out yet, but we’ll look for something in February. “There’s no hurry. We’ll let him eat well and sleep well. He’s been filling out so much. Last time we weighed him he was around 1,100 pounds.”

The media blitz, if all goes well, Eurton is looking forward to experiencing.

“I don’t mind attention,” Eurton said. “If they’re not talking to you, you’re not doing anything”.
Prat was aboard for Storm the Court’s three starts prior to the Juvenile. The Kentucky-bred son of Court Vision won his racing debut at Del Mar on August 10, then was sent to the top of the competition ladder in the Grade I Del Mar Futurity. Prat was unseated, as was Drayden Van Dyke on Eight Rings, when the latter bolted to the left and bumped Storm the Court in the Futurity. A third, beaten 8 ¼ lengths by Eight Rings, in the American Pharoah led to questions about Storm the Court and long odds in the Juvenile.

“It (Juvenile win) was a surprise even though we were all expecting him to run a good race,” Prat said recently. “He broke well and put me right into the race and it turned out our way because the favorite stumbled from the one hole. From that point I was able to control (the pace). Storm the Court showed what he had when he ran here the first time and we were able to get the job done.”
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TALAMO 2K IS ONLY TWO WINS AWAY

Jockey Joe Talamo, two wins shy of 2,000 for his career, has three scheduled mounts on Thursday’s program which starts Week Two of the meeting.

The 29-year-old native of Louisiana rides Goddess Aphrodite (5-2) for Peter Miller in the first race, Restoring Dreams (12-1) for Ryan Hanson in the fourth and Lightning Fast (9-2) for Bill Spawr in the eighth-race nightcap.

If the milestone isn’t reached Thursday, Talamo has four more mounts scheduled Friday.
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LITTLE SEPARATION ATOP JOCKEY, TRAINER LEADER BOARDS

There was a logjam atop the jockey standings and only a two-win separation from first to 10th in the trainer list after the three-day weekend start of the 2019 Bing Crosby meeting.

Heriberto Figueroa, Drayden Dyke, Tiago Pereira and Abel Cedillo all notched three wins to tie for first among riders. Figueroa and Cedillo got three wins from seven mounts each, a 43 percent win rate. Cedillo moved to the top with a riding triple on Sunday, a day after Van Dyke, the defending Fall meet champion, had tripled.

Peter Miller, a dominating presence in the trainer standings since the inaugural Bing Crosby meeting in 2014 and the defending champion, assumed a customary position atop the standings with three wins from six starters. Five conditioners are only one behind – Richard Baltas, John Sadler, Vladimir Cerin, Peter Eurton and Bill Spawr. Cerin’s wins came from only two representatives.
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CLOSERS – A mating announced Thursday by Spendthrift Farm has deep roots of success at Del Mar. Beholder, the 2013 Torrey Pines, and 2015 Clement L. Hirsch and TVG Pacific Classic winner, will be bred to 2017 Del Mar Futurity winner Bolt d’Oro in 2020, Spendthrift Farm announced. Beholder was the pride of B. Wayne Hughes’s Spendthrift Farm, winning four Eclipse awards. Bolt d’Oro, owned and trained by San Diego native Mick Ruis, stands at Spendthrift for $25,000.