DEL MAR, Calif.—Del Mar will present a stakes doubleheader Saturday with the 48th running of the Grade II, $250,000 Eddie Read Stakes being one of the offerings and the 54th edition of the Grade II, $200,000 San Clemente Stakes being the other.
The pair of black type, added-money affairs will highlight an 11-race card that has a first post of 2 p.m.
The Eddie Read, named for Del Mar’s long-time publicity director, has drawn a field of seven solid older stakes races, including Cannon Thoroughbred’s Smooth Like Strait and LNJ Foxwoods’ United. They’ll run a mile and one-eighth on the Jimmy Durante Turf Course in Race 8 on the program.
Then the San Clemente, named for the Orange Country beach town just above the Marines’ Camp Pendelton base north of the track, will go forth with a dozen 3-year-old fillies in the gate for a one-mile spin on the grass that is scheduled to be Race 10.
The Irish filly Going Global, a stakes winner of all four of her U.S. starts this year, appears a stout choice and surely the one to beat in the San Clemente, which serves as a key prep for the track’s championship race for sophomore fillies – the Grade I, $300,000 Del Mar Oaks at nine furlongs on Saturday, August 21.
Here’s the field for the Eddie Read with weights and riders:
1. Vintage Print (121, Adam Beschizza)
2. United (121, Flavine Prat)
3. Say the Word (123, Mike Smith)
4. Count Again (121, Joe Bravo)
5. Award Winner (123, Juan Hernandez)
6. Smooth Like Strait (125, Umberto Rispoli)
7. Restrainedvengence (121, Tyler Baze)
The San Clemente lineup looks like this:
1. Pizzazz (120, Kyle Frey)
2. Going Global (1232, Flavien Prat)
3. Founder’s Day (118, Baze)
4. Freedom Flyer (120, Victor Espinoza)
5. Tetragonal (120, Joe Bravo)
6. Equilove (120, Ricky Gonzalez)
7. Dramatizer (118, Edwin Maldonado)
8. Madone (123, Henandez)
9. Karakatsie (118, Kent Desormeaux)
10. Nimbostratus (120, Abel Cedillo)
11. Closing Remarks (123, Rispoli).
Smooth Like Straight, trained by Mike McCarthy, comes into the Read off a front-running tally in the Grade I Shoemaker Mile at Santa Anita on May 31. The handy 4-year-old by sprint champion Midnight Lute is a seven-time winner who has banked $933,823 and could take a bunch of catching Saturday.
United has won eight races and more than $1.5 million over a 19-race career thus far. The 6-year-old gelding by Giant’s Causeway won the Eddie Read last year.
In the San Clemente, Going Global, a daughter of the Irish stallion Mehmas, won only one of four starts in her native land as a 2-year-old, but has done nothing but win with her shift stateside. She is conditioned by Phil D’Amato.
Del Mar Entries for Saturday, July 24
Del Mar Thoroughbred Club Press Release
Photo: LNJ Foxwoods’ United. (Benoit)
