Tempus Volat (Benoit Photo)
Leonard Powell trainee prevails by ¾ of a length in the 12th Rendition of the $100,000 Stakes on Opening Day At Del Mar
Del Mar Press
DEL MAR, Calif.—In his stakes debut for trainer Leonard Powell Tempus Volat (10-1) sat off the pace to prevail over even money favorite Friendly Confines and scored by ¾ lengths in the $100,000 Let It Ride Stakes for three-year-olds at a mile on turf. Thursday kicked off the 16-day 2025 Bing Crosby Meet At Del Mar.
Breaking from post position two in a seven-horse field with Mirco Demuroaboard Tempus Volat and Friendly Confines with Flavien Prat battled for the early lead to the quarter pole, Friendly Confines ultimately seized the lead and set fractions of 22.65, 46.38, 1:11.13 with Demuro and Tempus Volat tracking third behind Mescalero and Umberto Rispoli. At the top of the stretch Tempus Volat swung out and kicked clear of the early pacesetter to stop the clock in 1:35.31.
“He’s a good young horse and he’s very comfortable sitting off the pace like he did today. Said Mirco Demuro. “He’s a good horse to ride because he’ll do whatever you ask him to do.”
Friendly Confines just held off by a nose after a late surge from third place finisher Lyle The Crocodile (5-1) with Irad Ortiz, Jr. up.
“We wanted to be close, for sure, because we had a good post position. We wanted to make the most out of it. I was happy to see Flavien (Prat) on the lead because he’s a smart jockey.” said Leonard Powell. “Both Flavien and Mirco (Demuro) rode good races, and our horse was best. He’s by Not This Time and his horses get better with age. He came to me early in the summer and every race he keeps getting better and better.”
Never worse than third in three starts since moving to the Powell barn this summer, Tempus Volat has improved his record to 6-2-1-2 with $142,058 in earnings for Sondereker Racing LLC.
Tempus Volat returned $23.40, $5.40 and $3.60 to his backers; Friendly Confines trained by Richard Baltas paid $2.40, $2.10 Lyle The Crocodile trained by Phil D’Amato paid $3.80 to show.
Early first post for a 10- race card Breeders’ Cup Future Stars Friday is 11:35 am with admission gates opening at 9:30 a.m.
