DEL MAR, Calif. – The Green Flash, that rare refraction out of the skies just as the sun sets out over the Pacific, was the inspiration for the name of the Green Flash Handicap, a race where very fast horses run a short five furlongs on the Del Mar green.
Saturday, the Grade III, $100,000 Green Flash Handicap leads off a banner day of racing offering five stakes worth a total of more than $1-million on the track’s foremost afternoon of sport with all the action of an 11-race card starting at 2 p.m.
Topweighted in the Green Flash at 123 pounds – and the morning line favorite at 5-2 – is Del Secco DCS Racing’s Sparky Ville, a multiple-stakes winning Candy Ride gelding who already has a win at the session on the five-panel layout that he’ll run on Saturday. Mike Smith rode the 4-year-old to a photo-finish tally here on July 26 and has the call back Saturday. Jeff Bonde trains the chestnut Kentucky-bred who can claim purse earnings of $321,312.
Here’s the lineup for the 18th edition of the 3-year-old and up dash with weights, riders and morning line odds:
Sparky Ville; G N O Racing Club, Aldabaugh, et al’s Irish Heatwave (118, Abel Cedillo, 12-1); Maryanski, Maryanski & Schneider’s Baja Sur (120, Juan Hernandez, 5-1); W.C. Racing’s Torosay (118, Heriberto Figueroa, 8-1); Keith Brackpool’s Mesut (120, Flavien Prat, 6-1); Del Secco DCS Racing’s Thanks Mr. Eidson (117, Ruben Fuentes, 15-1); Hronis Racing’s Chaos Theory (120, Umberto Rispoli, 7/2), and Mike Schott’s Mikes Tiznow (121, Ricardo Gonzalez, 9/2).
Mr Vargas wins 2019 Green Flash Handicap
Chaos Theory is an apparent private purchase by trainer John Sadler for his chief clients, Kosta and Pete Hronis, who have shown the way among Del Mar owners for the past several years. The 5-year-old Curlin gelding last raced June 14 at five furlongs on turf at Churchill Downs in Kentucky and was claimed out of that race for $62,500. The grass sprint specialist has won four times going short on the lawn and boasts a bankroll at just over $200,000.
Del Mar Entries for Saturday, August 22
https://www.equibase.com/static/entry/DMR082220USA-EQB.html
Del Mar Thoroughbred Club Press Release
Photo: Sparky Ville. Credit: Benoit Photo
