Del Mar Turf Start. (Benoit Photo)
Del Mar’s Sunday Stormy Liberal
Del Mar Stable Notes
DEL MAR, Calif.—The first of the stakes races Sunday is the $100,000 Stormy Liberal, a five furlong turf sprint that launches the stakes triple slated for Del Mar on closing day.
Once again Phil D’Amato has a stacked deck in this one, with three of the nine entries including Unconquerable Keen and Turn On The Jets, stablemates that have been knocking heads with each other in five of their last six races. For those keeping score, Unconquerable Keen holds the edge over Turn On the Jets 3-to-2 in their head-to-head meetings. In their last, an open four-horse allowance race at Santa Anita, a nose separated the two, Turn On The Jets getting the photo for second.
D’Amato’s other entry is Sorrento Sky, an Irish-bred who came to the trainer’s barn earlier this year. He’s run primarily in allowance races. His one venture into stakes company ended with a fourth-place finish in the $100,000 Desert Code in May.
Just Nails comes into the Stormy Liberal off of a near miss in the Senator Ken Maddy on the Breeders’ Cup Friday undercard at Del Mar.
“Trying the males and we have Frankie (Dettori) back on her,” trainer Doug O’Neill says. “She’s training very well; she likes it down here and I think she’ll be very competitive in there.”
Slider is back on the West Coast after returning from a 10-month layoff in an allowance race at Keeneland. Trainer John Sadler tried her in the G2 San Vicente earlier this year and she ran a respectable third behind Muth.
There’s also Johnny Podres, a hard knocking 7-year-old with 42 lifetime starts. He won the $100,000 Sensational Star and the $100,000 Siren Lure at Santa Anita earlier this year and posted runner-up finishes in both of his races at Del Mar this summer, including the G3 Green Flash.
It’s the third running of the Stormy Liberal, named after the fabulous sprinter who won back-to-back Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprints in 2017 at Del Mar and 2018 at Churchill Downs. It’s Race 3 on the closing day card. Probable post is 1:30 p.m.
