{"id":404135,"date":"2026-07-19T04:46:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T04:46:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/404135\/"},"modified":"2026-07-19T04:46:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T04:46:16","slug":"journalism-roars-back-from-disastrous-start-to-win-at-del-mar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/404135\/","title":{"rendered":"Journalism roars back from disastrous start to win at Del Mar"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

DEL MAR\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Umberto Rispoli waited nearly 11 months to ride Journalism again and then, well, let track announcer Larry Collmus describe it:<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re off in the San Diego Handicap and Journalism<\/a> brushed the gate just as it opened, and he\u2019s left behind the field. Journalism has been left behind about five lengths. … A disastrous start for the big favorite Journalism.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI won\u2019t tell you the swear [word] that I throw out there,\u201d Rispoli said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just kind of took the starch out of everything,\u201d said Aron Wellman<\/a>, managing partner of Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, co-owner of the 4-year-old colt.<\/p>\n

Fortunately for Rispoli, Wellman and anyone else associated with Journalism, including the fans who bet him down to 1-5 odds Saturday at Del Mar Racetrack, this story ended much happier than it began.<\/p>\n

Rispoli patiently guided Journalism back into close contact with the other four horses in the 1 1\/16-mile race, swung him outside entering the stretch and the son of Curlin cruised to a victory \u2014 his first since the same Saturday a year ago in the Haskell at Monmouth Park.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

In the ensuing 12 months, Journalism started four times and finished between second and fourth each time. He didn\u2019t run poorly in any of the races; in fact, of the seven horses who beat him, five were Breeders\u2019 Cup winners and a sixth won the Kentucky Derby<\/a> and Belmont<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But when your resume includes not only the Haskell but also the Santa Anita Derby and Preakness, sometimes close isn\u2019t good enough.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrustrating for sure,\u201d Wellman said earlier in the week.<\/p>\n

The San Diego Handicap presented the weakest field Journalism had faced since at least the 2025 Preakness<\/a>, and his task seemed to get easier when Full Serrano, the Breeders\u2019 Cup Dirt Mile winner here in 2024, was withdrawn Saturday morning because of recurring foot problems.<\/p>\n

But as Rispoli noted, \u201cYou can\u2019t go in a race and think of course he\u2019s [1-5]. You have to respect everybody in the field. Because you see, everything can happen in horse racing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Jockey <\/p>\n

Jockey Umberto Rispoli looks down at Journalism after riding the colt to victory in the San Diego Handicap on Saturday.<\/p>\n

(Benoit Photo via Associated Press)<\/p>\n

Including your horse starting to move forward just before the gate opens, then hitting the side of the stall and spotting the field several lengths.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was concerned [with] the bad start, obviously,\u201d Rispoli said. \u201cBut it wasn\u2019t the first time I was in that situation. I know what I have underneath myself. I know what he\u2019s capable of.\u201d<\/p>\n

The official margin was three-quarters of a length over the California-bred Shea Brennan, who was the longest shot in the short field at 23-1. Iron Man Cal, like the runner-up trained by Phil D\u2019Amato, was third, with The Goat fourth and pacesetting Mirahmadi fading to last.<\/p>\n

The final time was 1 minute, 42.65 seconds and Journalism, who paid $2.40 for his seventh win in 14 starts, earned $180,000 to push his career total to $4.77 million.<\/p>\n

\u201cUmberto did a good job of getting him to recover and his class won out,\u201d winning trainer Michael McCarthy said.<\/p>\n

And, given what Rispoli has been through, maybe Saturday was supposed to be difficult. The Italian jockey only recently resumed riding a few weeks ago after missing five months because of a fall in January at Gulfstream Park. He sustained a fractured right fibula and tibia, a displaced ankle and torn ligaments.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was in severe pain,\u201d Rispoli said of his rehab, which included time spent at a specialist in Spain. \u201cThe first two weeks [in Spain], I said to myself, this is gonna be hard to do it. You know, I\u2019m almost 38, first time a very hard accident happened to me. It was really bad.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut this is what gave me the strength, horse racing. And I know I have a job incomplete … so I have to come back for this guy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DEL MAR\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Umberto Rispoli waited nearly 11 months to ride Journalism again and then, well, let track announcer Larry…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":404136,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[160509,24481,162122,8504,162121,6308,80939,13569,21006,48,52,51,47,50,49,3906,2211,162120,160512,315,430],"class_list":["post-404135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-aron-wellman","tag-breeders","tag-cup-winner","tag-del-mar","tag-disastrous-start","tag-field","tag-haskell","tag-horse","tag-journalism","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-month","tag-race","tag-rispoli","tag-san-diego-handicap","tag-time","tag-week"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=404135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404135\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/404136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}