Trainer Phil D’Amato is getting pretty good at defending the titles of races he won the year before. Last weekend, Gold Phoenix won the Grade 2 Del Mar Handicap for a fourth straight year, and his Motorious won the G3 Green Flash for a third straight year. So when he brings a horse back to defend its crown, people take notice.

The defending champion and another talented invader from the Graham Motion barn highlight this Saturday’s 68th running of the G2 John C. Mabee. Nine fillies and mares will give it a go in the 1 ⅛ miles turf test, the last of the graded stakes for older horses at Del Mar this summer.

D’Amato has brought his usual tour de force with four horses entered, including Hang the Moon, last year’s winner of the Mabee. She went on to win the G2 Rodeo Drive at Santa Anita, earning her a trip to the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Del Mar.

She finished last in that race, and after another poor showing in the G3 Robert J. Frankel in December, D’Amato gave the daughter of Uncle Mo some time off. She returned in the G2 Yellow Ribbon at Del Mar last month and ran fourth.

“I think she needed the race,” D’Amato notes. “She was kind of up close, and she can be pace compromised if she doesn’t get it to come with her late kick. Second off the bench, she’s a tighter filly and ready to go at the mile and an eighth.”

Hang the Moon will have some company when she heads over from the D’Amato barn. Stablemate Public Assembly was runner-up in the Yellow Ribbon.

“We were very happy with her performance in there,” D’Amato states. “There was no pace at all and she came running. Hopefully, there’s a little more pace for her to run at this time.”

Mission of Joy and Kentucky Gal will also represent D’Amato in the Mabee.

Graham Motion ships in Gimme a Nother, a South African-bred mare who has run second in three of her four starts since arriving at Motion’s barn late last year. She ran second in the G2 Hillsborough at Tampa Bay Downs in her U.S. debut in March, followed by a second to She Feels Pretty in the G3 Modesty at Churchill Downs on Kentucky Oaks Day.

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She was last in a field of seven in the G1 New York at Saratoga on Belmont Stakes Day, but rebounded nicely, missing by a head in the G2 Canadian at Woodbine last out.

“She ran such a huge race that day at Woodbine,” Alice Clapham, assistant trainer for Motion, says. “It’s such a shame she got beat on the wire.”

Gimme a Nother shipped into Del Mar from Motion’s stable at Fair Hill in Maryland.

“Having come in from South Africa, this is a small trip for her,” Clapham notes. “She seems to be good. Bright and happy. This is a good spot for her.”

Motion is one-for-one at Del Mar this summer, shipping in and winning the Yellow Ribbon with Heredia last month.

Trainer Peter Eurton is expecting big things from Medoro, winner of the $100,000 Osunitas Stakes at Del Mar in July. It was her 2025 debut after a successful 3-year-old campaign in which she kept graded stakes company in all but one of her six starts.

“She has a lot of heart,” Eurton says. “She’s missed a few dances here and there, but we gave her a freshening at the beginning of this year, which I think you need to do with 3-year-olds before taking the next step against older. She came back better, and she’s shown a lot more athleticism this year because she’s fresh.”

Eurton says if they win the Mabee on Saturday, they would consider the Breeders’ Cup, noting that the Filly and Mare Turf is “always very difficult.” Medoro has never finished out of the money in nine lifetime starts and was second to Iscreamuscream in last year’s G1 Del Mar Oaks.

The John C. Mabee is named after one of the founders of the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club and the owner of the once popular Golden Eagle Farm in Ramona, and breeder of Best Pal. It goes off as race 9 on the 11-race Saturday card at Del Mar. Probable post is 5:30 p.m.

Here’s the field from the rail out with the jockeys and the morning line odds: Mahina (Drayden Van Dyke, 12-1); Public Assembly (Antonio Fresu, 6-1); Mission of Joy (Hector I. Berrios, 12-1); Medoro (Umberto Rispoli, 5/2); Hopeful (Kent Desormeaux, 8-1); Kentucky Gal (Edwin Maldonado, 12-1); Gimme a Nother (Juan Hernandez, 3-1); Baltic Fire (Serafin Carmona, 12-1), and Hang the Moon (Kazushi Kimura, 5-1).

This story was originally reported by Paulick Report on Sep 5, 2025, where it first appeared in the News section. Add Paulick Report as a Preferred Source by clicking here.