Bench Light Sharp in Del Mar Turf Feature

Deftly handled by Hall of Fame rider Kent Desormeaux, Bench Light flashed to the lead in the upper stretch and drew off impressively to win Del Mar’s feature race Thursday, a mile and three-eighths test of stamina over the infield Jimmy Durante grass course.

Bench Light, trained by Mike Pender, scored by 6 ¼ lengths for his seventh triumph in 23 career outings. Money Clip rallied to be second, a head in front of Christopher Street, with Street Maven fourth in the field of ten older horses.

Bench Light, a five-year-old son of Benchmark, accomplished the distance in 2:11.34 and returned $18, $7.60 and $5.60 while earning $60,060 from the purse of $94,882.  Money Clip paid $10.60 and $5.60, while Christopher Street returned $4.60 to show.

There was a single winning ticket in the Pick Six Thursday and it was worth $349,288.60. With a carryover of $67,343 from Wednesday and $395,807 bet Thursday, the Pick Six pool totaled $463,150. 

Thursday’s attendance was 9,841.