DEL MAR LEADERS
(Final)
Jockeys / Wins
Juan Hernandez / 45
Antonio Fresu / 37
Hector Berrios / 26
Umberto Rispoli / 23
Kazushi Kimura / 23
Armando Ayuso / 16
Diego Herrera / 11
Ricardo Gonzalez / 10
Tyler Baze / 9
(Three tied) / 8
Trainers / Wins
Bob Baffert / 24
Mark Glatt / 18
Peter Miller / 18
Phil D’Amato / 17
John Sadler / 16
Michael McCarthy / 14
George Papaprodromou / 12
Peter Eurton / 11
Richard Baltas / 9
Jeff Mullins / 9
UPCOMING STAKES
LOS ALAMITOS THOROUGHBREDS
Saturday
• $75,000 E.B. Johnston Stakes, California-bred 3-year-olds and up, 1 mile
LOS ALAMITOS QUARTER HORSES
Saturday
• $100,000, Grade I Mildred Vessels Memorial, fillies and mares, 3 and up, 400 yards
Sunday
• $270,000, Grade II PCQHRA Breeders Futurity, 2-year-olds, 350 yards
DOWN THE STRETCH
• Los Alamitos opens the second of its three short thoroughbred meets this year with an eight-race card starting Friday at 1 p.m. Racing will be held Friday, Saturday and Sunday this week and next, and will feature two 1-mile stakes – the $75,000 E.B. Johnston for Cal-bred 3-year-olds and up on Saturday and the $100,000 Dark Mirage for fillies and mares 3 and up on Sept. 20.
• Man O Rose and jockey Edwin Maldonado seek a repeat of their front-running, eight-length win in the 2024 E.B. Johnston when the Jeff Mullins-trained 5-year-old gelding races for the first time in 2025 on Saturday. Five opponents include the stakes-winning 5-year-old mare Chismosa (Ricardo Gonzalez riding), the 5-year-old gelding Left Hand Man (Antonio Fresu) and the 6-year-old gelding Stamp My Passport (Diego Herrera).
• Gonzalez and Herrera showed the biggest improvements in the Del Mar jockey standings from last summer’s meet to the one that ended Sunday. Gonzalez, 30, went from 12th (eight wins, 10%) to eighth (10 wins, 13%), and Herrera, 21, rose from 13th (six wins, 7%) to seventh (11 wins, 10%).
• Los Al quarter-horse racing continues at night on Saturdays and Sundays. The Golden State Derby on Saturday saw Favorite Jesshawk ($6.20) and jockey Ricardo Ramirez win by a half-length over Defending Champ and Gabriel Lara, reversing the result of the horses’ two earlier meetings. The Mildred Vessels Memorial this Saturday includes 2024 AQHA and PCQHRA champion aged mare Jessica Cruz and Grade I winners Rockin With Energy, Shaken Goin On and Curls Joyful Wagon.
• The Kentucky Derby qualifying season begins Saturday with the 1-mile Iroquois Stakes for 2-year-olds at Churchill Downs awarding points (10, 5, 3, 2, 1) to the top five finishers. Eddie Kenneally-trained Comport (Tyler Gaffalione) and Steve Asmussen’s Spice Runner (Jose Ortiz), 1-2 in a sprint at Ellis Park, are 6-5 and 7-2 on the morning line in a field of 10.
• The 36 U.S. qualifying races for the May 2 Kentucky Derby include Santa Anita’s Oct. 4 American Pharoah Stakes, Jan. 31 Robert B. Lewis, Feb. 28 San Felipe and April 4 Santa Anita Derby; the Dec. 13 Los Alamitos Futurity; and the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile on Day One of the Oct. 31-Nov. 1 Breeders’ Cup at Del Mar.
• Too bad Churchill Downs chose to renew the policy of reducing points by 25% for qualifying races with five horses and 50% for those with four or fewer. In 2024, the deduction for the five-horse Santa Anita Derby nearly kept Baeza, runner-up to Journalism, out of the Kentucky Derby. A scratch got Baeza in, and he left no doubt he belonged by finishing third behind winner Sovereignty and Journalism at Churchill Downs.
• A post-race positive for a controlled substance has led to the 4-year-old Cal-bred filly Sneaker being disqualified from her win with jockey Kazushi Kimura for owner RL Stables in the $100,000 Fran’s Valentine Stakes on May 24 at Santa Anita, and trainer George Papaprodromou beginning a seven-day suspension this week. The 5-year-old mare Cornelia Fort and rider Antonio Fresu become the winners for trainer Andy Mathis and an ownership group headed by Greenway Racing Stables. The substance is capsaicin, a painkiller present in some products used around horses but prohibited in races.
— Kevin Modesti
Originally Published:
