Trainer Phil D\u2019Amato 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.<\/p>\n
The defending champion and another talented invader from the Graham Motion barn highlight this Saturday\u2019s 68th running of the G2 John C. Mabee. Nine fillies and mares will give it a go in the 1 \u215b miles turf test, the last of the graded stakes for older horses at Del Mar this summer.<\/p>\n
D\u2019Amato has brought his usual tour de force with four horses entered, including Hang the Moon, last year\u2019s winner of the Mabee. She went on to win the G2 Rodeo Drive at Santa Anita, earning her a trip to the Breeders\u2019 Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Del Mar.<\/p>\n
She finished last in that race, and after another poor showing in the G3 Robert J. Frankel in December, D\u2019Amato gave the daughter of Uncle Mo some time off. She returned in the G2 Yellow Ribbon at Del Mar last month and ran fourth.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think she needed the race,\u201d D\u2019Amato notes. \u201cShe was kind of up close, and she can be pace compromised if she doesn\u2019t get it to come with her late kick. Second off the bench, she\u2019s a tighter filly and ready to go at the mile and an eighth.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hang the Moon will have some company when she heads over from the D\u2019Amato barn. Stablemate Public Assembly was runner-up in the Yellow Ribbon.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were very happy with her performance in there,\u201d D\u2019Amato states. \u201cThere was no pace at all and she came running. Hopefully, there\u2019s a little more pace for her to run at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mission of Joy and Kentucky Gal will also represent D\u2019Amato in the Mabee.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
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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.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe ran such a huge race that day at Woodbine,\u201d Alice Clapham, assistant trainer for Motion, says. \u201cIt\u2019s such a shame she got beat on the wire.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gimme a Nother shipped into Del Mar from Motion\u2019s stable at Fair Hill in Maryland.<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving come in from South Africa, this is a small trip for her,\u201d Clapham notes. \u201cShe seems to be good. Bright and happy. This is a good spot for her.\u201d<\/p>\n
Motion is one-for-one at Del Mar this summer, shipping in and winning the Yellow Ribbon with Heredia last month.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe has a lot of heart,\u201d Eurton says. \u201cShe\u2019s 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\u2019s shown a lot more athleticism this year because she\u2019s fresh.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eurton says if they win the Mabee on Saturday, they would consider the Breeders\u2019 Cup, noting that the Filly and Mare Turf is \u201calways very difficult.\u201d Medoro has never finished out of the money in nine lifetime starts and was second to Iscreamuscream in last year\u2019s G1 Del Mar Oaks.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s 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).<\/p>\n
This story was originally reported by Paulick Report<\/a> on Sep 5, 2025, where it first appeared in the News<\/a> section. Add Paulick Report as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Trainer Phil D\u2019Amato is getting pretty good at defending the titles of races he won the year before.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":118032,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[22929,6552,48974,56493,56496,56495,56497,3004,101,56494,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-118031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-racing","tag-defending-champion","tag-del-mar","tag-del-mar-handicap","tag-graham-motion","tag-hang-the-moon","tag-john-c-mabee","tag-mabee","tag-racing","tag-sports","tag-trainer-phil-damato","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118031"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118031\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}