DEL MAR \u2013 Trainer Doug O\u2019Neill\u2019s hopes of doubling in this weekend\u2019s 2-year-old features at Del Mar were dashed Friday afternoon as soon as the gates opened for the $100,000 Graduation Stakes.<\/p>\n
His 3-5 favorite Hero Or Zero stumbled out of the gate under Umberto Rispoli to start last in the field of five in the five-furlong sprint on the dirt for Cal-bred 2-year-olds.<\/p>\n
With Hero Or Zero left at the gate, second-favorite Sammy Davis led wire-to-wire under Hector Berrios. What\u2019s a Good Name (Juan Hernandez), the only filly in the field, was second the entire way. Hero Or Zero finished third, but was never in position to challenge for the lead.<\/p>\n
Both Sammy Davis ($5.80) and What\u2019s a Good Name won their debuts on July 19 at Del Mar. Trained by John Sadler, Sammy Davis, a son of Sir Prancealot, won by 2\u00bc lengths.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s a Good Name was originally entered in last Sunday\u2019s CTBA Stakes but was scratched by trainer Peter Miller to get an extra week\u2019s rest. She finished a length ahead of Hero Or Zero.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know Hero Or Zero had trouble at the start,\u201d said Berrios. \u201cTough break for him. Good for me. \u2026 John said, \u2018Just ride it as it comes up.\u2019 He broke good and we went with it. He was doing most of it running on his own. When I asked him, he finished up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trainers O\u2019Neill (three) and Bob Baffert (two) will have all the entries in Saturday\u2019s $150,000, Grade III Best Pal Stakes \u2013 a six-furlong sprint on the dirt for 2-year-olds that serves as a prep for next month\u2019s Grade I Del Mar Futurity.<\/p>\n
Baffert will have the favorite in Desert Gate (Hernandez) as he seeks to extend his own record with a 12th win in the Best Pal. Desert Gate is the morning-line 3-5 favorite to deliver a fourth straight Best Pal to Baffert. A son of Omaha Beach, Desert Gate won his debut June 13 at Santa Anita.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe thought Desert Gate would win his first time out,\u201d said Baffert. \u201cHe\u2019s a cool horse. He\u2019s come back and trained really well.\u201d<\/p>\n
O\u2019Neill has the second-choice in Punto Forty, who is owned by rapper Lil Yachty. Antonio Fresu will be aboard the son of Nyquist.<\/p>\n
Baffert\u2019s St. Petersburg (Drayden Van Dyke) is the third-favorite followed by O\u2019Neill\u2019s Brigante (Berrios) and Pavlovian (Rispoli).<\/p>\n
Speaking of multiple entries, Phil D\u2019Amato, who has been known to go 1-2-3 in stakes races, will saddle half the entries in the featured Grade II Yellow Ribbon Handicap \u2013 a $200,000, 1 1\/16-mile turf test for older fillies and mares.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Neill\u2019s Hang the Moon (Kazushi Kimura) is a narrow morning-line favorite over the Michael McCarthy-trained Liguria (Rispoli), who won the 2022 Grade III Jimmy Durante when shipped in from the east for trainer Chad Brown.<\/p>\n
Hang the Moon, a 5-year-old daughter of Uncle Mo, won the Grade II John C. Mabee at Del Mar and the Grade II Rodeo Drive at Santa Anita last year but hasn\u2019t raced since running sixth in the Grade III Robert J. Frankel at Santa Anita on Dec. 27.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe layoff was by design,\u201d said D\u2019Amato. \u201cShe\u2019s come back as good as ever.\u201d<\/p>\n
Graham Motion has shipped Heredia (Hernandez) in from Saratoga for the Yellow Ribbon.<\/p>\n
Notable<\/p>\n
Hernandez and Fresu, who are first and second, respectively, in the jockey standings, each won two races Friday. Baffert pulled into a three-way tie with Mark Glatt and Miller for the training lead.<\/p>\n
Originally Published: August 8, 2025 at 8:11 PM PDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DEL MAR \u2013 Trainer Doug O\u2019Neill\u2019s hopes of doubling in this weekend\u2019s 2-year-old features at Del Mar were…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":54342,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[8029,2739,3004,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-54341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-racing","tag-horse-racing","tag-latest-headlines","tag-racing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54341","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=54341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54341\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}