Defunded Heads Field Of Six Older Horses in G3 Native Diver

Defunded wins the G1 Awesome Again (Ernie Belmonte/Past The Wire)

DMTC Press Release

DEL MAR, Calif.— Six older horses will match strides at Del Mar Sunday in the 45th edition of the Native Diver Stakes, a Grade III affair named for one of California’s great racehorses. “The Diver” won an amazing 34 races and was the state’s first racing millionaire and he did it with pure speed, something that will be prominent among the half-dozen racing Sunday.

It appears the horse to beat in the nine-furlong, $150,000 headliner is Pegram, Watson and Weitman’s Defunded, a 4-year-old gelding who comes into the test off a frontrunning score in the Grade I Awesome Again at Santa Anita on October 1, a race contested at the same mile and an eighth as the Native Diver. Trainer Bob Baffert had veteran jockey Edwin Maldonado named on board that day and he’ll give him a leg up again on Sunday.

Here’s the full field for the stakes from the rail out with riders and morning line odds:

Pegram, Watson and Weitman’s Azul Coast (John Valezquez, 6-1); MyRacehorse or Spendthrift Farm’s Tizamagician (Flavien Prat, 4-1); Hurst Racing Stables’ Go Joe Won (Jose Valdivia, Jr., 12-1); David Bernsen and Little Red Feather Racing’s Newgrange (Ricardo Gonalez, 5/2); Defunded (6/5), and C R K Stable’s Parnelli (Victor Espinoza, 6-1).