DEL MAR LEADERS
(Through Sunday)
Jockeys / Wins
Antonio Fresu / 4
Frankie Dettori / 3
Tiago Pereira / 2
Ryan Moore / 2
Edwin Maldonado / 2
Hector Berrios / 2
Joel Rosario / 2
Juan Hernandez / 2
Umberto Rispoli / 2
Trainers / Wins
Mark Glatt / 3
Doug O’Neill / 3
Rolando Quinonez / 2
Bob Baffert / 2
George Papaprodromou / 2
Aidan O’Brien / 2
Peter Miller / 2
Phil D’Amato / 2
WEEKEND STAKES
DEL MAR
Saturday
• $100,000 Cary Grant Stakes, California-bred 3-year-olds and up, 7 furlongs
Sunday
• $100,000 Betty Grable Stakes, Cal-bred fillies and mares, 3 and up, 7 furlongs
LOS ALAMITOS
Saturday
• $30,000 Town Policy Stakes, 3-year-old quarter horses, 400 yards
• $30,000 Justanold Love Stakes, 3-year-old quarter-horse fillies, 350 yards
Sunday
• $763,000 Los Alamitos Super Derby, 3-year-old quarter horses, 400 yards
DOWN THE STRETCH
• Post-Breeders’ Cup, Del Mar’s fall meet continues each Friday-Saturday-Sunday through Dec. 1. Saturday’s Cary Grant Stakes sets up for Big City Lights (Kazushi Kimura riding) to record his fourth stakes victory. The 5-year-old trained by Richard Mandella is winless in five starts when he faces The Chosen Vron but has won five of six races that – like this – don’t include the star sprinter. The competition in a five-horse field includes Curlin’s Kaos (Diego Herrera) and Man O Rose (Edwin Maldonado).
• In Los Alamitos night quarter-horse racing, Bp Cartel Policy (Armando Cervantes) seeks his third derby win and sixth win in seven starts in 2024 when he runs as fastest qualifier in the Los Alamitos Super Derby on Sunday. Trainer Monty Arrossa also had second and third qualifiers Stanley Cartel and Ab Seis Corazones in the Oct. 20 trials.
• A horse trained by Phil D’Amato tested positive for methamphetamine after an Aug. 1 workout at Los Alamitos, the Thoroughbred Daily News was first to report, citing the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit website. The report said D’Amato could have faced a provisional suspension had rules not been changed to allow medication cases to be adjudicated before sanctions are imposed. Attorney Drew Mollica told TDN the source of contamination was been identified and D’Amato is not to blame, but the trainer could end up suspended for 60 days. The horse is Thebestisyettobe, a 4-year-old filly who’s winless in four starts since coming from Ireland.
• Thorpedo Anna rose to No. 1 (from No. 2) in the National Thoroughbred Racing Association’s weekly media poll after her Breeders’ Cup Distaff win at Del Mar, while Sierra Leone jumped to No. 2 (from No. 20) and Fierceness fell to No. 3 (from No. 1) after their 1-2 finish in the Breeders’ Cup Classic. Thorpedo Anna received 26 of 30 first-place votes, a pretty good sign that after the races Saturday at Del Mar, the dominant 3-year-old filly is likely to be voted Horse of the Year.
• Adare Manor, California’s leading mare the past two years, and Anisette, the state’s top turf filly, were among horses selling for seven figures at auctions in Kentucky this week. Adare Manor, retired in August, sold for $2.8 million to Japan’s Katsumi Yoshida at the Fasig-Tipton November Sale. The British-bred Anisette, ninth in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf, went for $1.8 million to England’s Willingham Stud at the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale.
• Among California racing’s headaches right now is the weak start for the nearly two-month meet at Pleasanton that is replacing shuttered Golden Gate Fields on the Bay Area calendar. Betting handle is averaging $725,000 a day since the meet’s Oct. 19 opening, not only well below Golden Gate Fields’ numbers but even below the Fresno Fair’s figures in September.
— Kevin Modesti