DEL MAR \u2014 Listenupshance was the surprise winner of Saturday\u2019s Grade I Bing Crosby Stakes in a race marred by a right front leg injury to the favored Cornucopian.<\/p>\n
Cornucopian, a 4-year-old son of Into Mischief, suffered an injury of undetermined severity nearing the quarter pole on the far turn and was pulled up by jockey Juan Hernandez. Cornucopian was vanned off the main track and taken to an examination facility on the backstretch.<\/p>\n
Just before 7:30 p.m., Cornucopian was returned to the barn of trainer Bob Baffert, where evaluations continued.<\/p>\n
The winner of four of seven career starts for Baffert, Cornucopian went off as the 6-5 favorite in the Crosby \u2014 a $400,000, six-furlong sprint that earned winning Listenupshance an automatic spot in the Breeders\u2019 Cup Sprint field on Oct. 31.<\/p>\n
Listenupshance, ridden by Emisael Jaramillo, was taking the lead from Mad House on the far turn at the same time Hernandez was easing up the injured Cornucopian, who was farther back and to the outside in the turn.<\/p>\n
Listenupshance, trained by Doug O\u2019Neill, widened his lead to 2\u00bd lengths in the stretch then held off a late charge by second-favorite Maximum Bourbon (Joel Rosario).<\/p>\n
The 4-year-old son of Shancealot ($13.80) won by a nose over Maximum Bourbon with longshot Moonlight (Victor Espinoza) finishing third. Mad House (Sonny Leon) finished fourth.<\/p>\n
\u201cEmisael did such a great job of getting a clean break,\u201d said O\u2019Neill of his 50th stakes win at Del Mar. \u201cHe was laying in a perfect spot and then I saw the times and thought we might be in trouble.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just knew this horse was a warrior. I knew if he was anywhere near the lead at the head of the lane, he\u2019d be near at the wire. I\u2019m just over the moon.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMy plan was to break in front, but that didn\u2019t happen,\u201d said Jaramillo. \u201cSo I followed Mad House and waited for my chance. My horse had just enough at the finish.\u201d<\/p>\n
Baffert shipped Cornucopian in from Kentucky, where he won the Grade III Aristdes Stakes at Churchill Downs in his most recent start on May 30.<\/p>\n
Showdown in Read<\/p>\n
Two of Del Mar\u2019s top grass champions \u2014 Gold Phoenix and Formidable Man \u2014 meet in today\u2019s feature \u2013 the Grade II Eddie Read Stakes, a 11\/8-mile test for older horses.<\/p>\n
Gold Phoenix has won the Grade II Del Mar Handicap a record four times. Formidable Man has won six of his seven Del Mar starts with the lone exception being a second-place finish in the Breeders\u2019 Cup Mile last Nov. 1.<\/p>\n
The Michael McCarthy-trained Formidable Man is a morning-line 7-5 favorite in the field of nine for the Eddie Read, which will be the ninth of 11 races on the program. Gold Phoenix is the second pick at 3-1.<\/p>\n
Formidable Man is the defending champion in the Eddie Read, which is one of five graded stakes races won by the 5-year-old son of City of Light at Del Mar. John Velazquez, who rode Formidable Man in the Breeders\u2019 Cup Mile, will again be aboard.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think \u2018horse for the course\u2019 is certainly part of it with Formidable Man,\u201d said McCarthy.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut he also does fine at Santa Anita and we were second in the American Turf at Churchill Downs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Formidable Man hasn\u2019t raced since winning his 2026 debut, the Grade I Shoemaker Mile at Santa Anita on May 25.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had a nice break, a freshening after the Breeders\u2019 Cup,\u201d said McCarthy. \u201cHe didn\u2019t miss a beat once he came back into training. To run like he did in the Shoemaker Mile, I thought that was exceptional.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Irish-bred Gold Phoenix is an 8-year-old gelding who has won five of his 10 Del Mar starts \u2014 including the 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025 Del Mar Handicap.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s just a solid veteran,\u201d said trainer Phil D\u2019Amato. \u201cHe knows what he is doing. He always tries. The Eddie Read is as good prep for a run at a fifth straight Del Mar Handicap. After this race, I can just take my time with him and have him ready for the handicap without having to train him so hard.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is the first time Gold Phoenix and Formidable Man have been in the same race. D\u2019Amato will also have Almendares (Antonio Fresu) in the Read. Almendares ran second to Formidable Man in the Shoemaker Mile.<\/p>\n
Distaff stakes<\/p>\n
Supporting the Bing Crosby on Saturday\u2019s card were a pair of $100,000 non-graded stakes for older fillies and mares.<\/p>\n
Jockey Kyle Frey and Baltic Fire ($16.20) held off fast-closing Public Assembly (Umberto Rispoli) to win the Osunitas Stakes, a one-mile turf run. Public Assembly was sixth in the seven-horse field when Baltic Fire took the lead entering the stretch. Rispoli mounted a strong run along the rail but finished a neck short at the line. French-bred favorite Certitude finished fifth while the British-bred Saqqara Sands was last in her U.S. racing debut.<\/p>\n
Fresu rallied the Richard Mandella-trained Amorita ($12.40) in the stretch to pass race-long-leader Can\u2019t Sleep at the wire to win the five-furlong Daisycutter Handicap. Jaramillo put Can\u2019t Sleep on the lead leaving the gate and was never headed until the final strides. Favorite Saratoga Special chased Can\u2019t Sleep until the stretch, faded and finished sixth in the field of eight.<\/p>\n
Notable<\/p>\n
Favored Domus ($5), a 2-year-old son of Uncle Mo, won the first open maiden special weight race of the summer meeting. Hernandez was aboard as trainer Baffert went 1-2 (Nayar).
\nWith winning favorite Lady In Paris disqualified from her win in the finale of Saturday\u2019s 11-race card, costing a the track a Pick Six carryover, only one favorite won. Through the first six days of the summer meeting, favorites have won only 11 of 59 races \u2014 a 18.6% success rate that is around half the normal percentage of winning favorites.
\nNysos covered four furlongs in 47.60 seconds Saturday morning as he continued working toward the Aug. 22 Pacific Classic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DEL MAR \u2014 Listenupshance was the surprise winner of Saturday\u2019s Grade I Bing Crosby Stakes in a race…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":412627,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[181,74,76,75,127],"class_list":["post-412626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-latest-headlines","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412626","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=412626"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412626\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/412627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=412626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=412626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=412626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}