DEL MAR \u2013 The tourists of summer are gone. The excitement of the Breeders\u2019 Cup is over.<\/p>\n
The halcyon vibe of Del Mar\u2019s Bing Crosby meet is quite different from the intense and fast-paced days of the featured summer session and last weekend\u2019s fourth Breeders\u2019 Cup at Del Mar in nine years.<\/p>\n
The fall crowds are much smaller, but with a higher percentage of dedicated horseplayers. There are fewer horses on the grounds and the fields tend to be smaller. And because the sun sets earlier, it\u2019s a shorter day with fewer races.<\/p>\n
But there are races and winners. And the 12th annual Fall meeting will end Nov. 28-30 with the Turf Festival \u2013 three days of high stakes racing on the grass that draws leading horses from the east because the turf has gone dormant at most other tracks in the nation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fall meet, even in the mornings, has a more relaxed pace than the busy summer season,\u201d said track president Josh Rubinstein. \u201cThis is a \u2018locals meeting.\u2019 It is an ideal time to enjoy Del Mar in a comfortable setting.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI love Del Mar in the fall,\u201d said former meet champion trainer Peter Miller. \u201cFrom a training standpoint, Del Mar in the fall is the best surface we have among the three Southern California tracks. The track holds the water better with the cooler temperatures and cooler days. And we have more of a marine layer and fog.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe horses love the weather and track conditions. And it\u2019s quieter. Both the trainers and horses love that. It\u2019s calmer and the work days are shorter.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first thing you notice about the fall meeting is how quiet it is,\u201d said Del Mar racing secretary David Jerkens. \u201cIt\u2019s more relaxed.\u201d<\/p>\n
During the summer, there will be more than 1,900 horses in Del Mar\u2019s barns. During the fall, the equine population is around 400. Many trainers van their entries in from Santa Anita, Los Alamitos and San Luis Rey Downs for the three-day race weekends \u2013 although Del Mar is the only track offering turf training at this time of the year.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do have quite a few individuals who quite honestly enjoy being here in the fall,\u201d said Jerkens. \u201cThey like having a racetrack essentially to themselves. It\u2019s challenging in some aspects. But as long as the weather cooperates, we should have a good meet.\u201d<\/p>\n
Among the name trainers who are Del Mar regulars in the fall are defending champion Mark Glatt; former champions Miller (four times), Phil D\u2019Amato (three), Richard Baltas (two) and Doug O\u2019Neill (one), plus John Shirreffs, George Papaprodromou, Bob Hess and Richard Mandella.<\/p>\n
Keep Smilin<\/p>\n
Heavy favorite Grand Slam Smile overtook and pulled away from 11-1 longshot Issa Court in the stretch Sunday to win the $100,000 Betty Grable Stakes for older Cal-bred fillies and mares by 1\u00bc lengths.<\/p>\n
Ridden by William Antongeorgi III, Grand Slam Smile went off as the 3-5 favorite in the field of seven for the seven-furlong race on the main track. The 4-year-old daughter of Smiling Tiger stalked Issa Court from the outside for most of the distance before taking over in the stretch. Issa Court (Hector Berrios) finished second, 4\u00be lengths ahead of No Cap.<\/p>\n
Grand Slam Smile has three wins and two seconds this season under Antongeorgi, who previously rode on the now defunct Northern California circuit. Sneaker, which had a win and a second earlier this year in two previous duels with Grand Slam Smile, finished last in her first race on the dirt.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe is pretty push button,\u201d Antogeorgi said of Grand Slam Smile. \u201cShe bottles that energy up and when the gates open she gives it her all. You just have to contain it and wait for the right move.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis filly is just so game,\u201d trainer Sean McCarthy said of the winner. \u201cShe cruised along nice on the backstretch. I told Billy to just give me a nice half-mile pace and he did.\u201d<\/p>\n
Notable<\/p>\n
Mirco Demuro, who struggled last summer during his first Del Mar meet, had three wins Sunday \u2013 Maniae ($11.80) in the fourth, Maniatic ($9) in the sixth and favored No Other Like You ($4.40) in the ninth \u2013 to give him eight wins for the fall and the lead in the jockey standings. O\u2019Neill, John Sadler and Papaprodromou are tied for the trainer lead with five wins apiece.
\nFor the second straight day, fog disrupted the morning workouts at Del Mar. Some trainers worked horses, but there were no official times on the main track. The fog lifted around 9 a.m. and 20 horses scheduled for turf work got on the track.
\nKopion, who ran fifth in the Breeders\u2019 Cup Sprint against males after finishing second in the Grade I Clement L. Hirsch Stakes at Del Mar last summer, has been retired to breed at Spendthrift Farm in Kentucky. Kopion\u2019s five wins in 10 career starts include the Grade Is La Brea at Santa Anita and Derby City Distaff at Churchill Downs.
\nCollected, the winner of the 2017 Pacific Classic at Del Mar, and a leading sire has been relocated from Kentucky to Rancho San Miguel in San Luis Obispo \u2013 a move seen as a boost to California\u2019s Thoroughbred breeding industry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DEL MAR \u2013 The tourists of summer are gone. The excitement of the Breeders\u2019 Cup is over. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":45989,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[8506,181,74,76,75,127],"class_list":{"0":"post-45988","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-horse-racing","9":"tag-latest-headlines","10":"tag-san-diego","11":"tag-san-diego-headlines","12":"tag-san-diego-news","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45988","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=45988"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45988\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}