Defending Bing Crosby season champion O'Neill hopes to gather momentum

The powerful stable of Doug O’Neill, a four-time winner of and a perennial contender for the Del Mar Summer meet training title, wasn’t up to its usual standards in 2016. O’Neill won 11 races from 135 starters and finished in a three-way tie for fifth in the standings, 12 wins behind Phil D’Amato.

 

Team O’Neill is, however, the defending Bing Crosby season champion. Its 15 wins from 69 starters in 2015 was two more than Phil D’Amato. So …

 

“We’re trying to bounce back,” O’Neill’s chief assistant, Leandro Mora, said earlier this week on the Del Mar backstretch. “It (summer meeting) was all right. Not what we expected, but that’s the way it is. Luckily we’ve been in the game long enough to know how it works and you’re going to have ups and downs.”

 

Mora will be the on-site supervisor of the Del Mar operation the bulk of the time. O’Neill is expected to journey down from the Santa Anita base once or twice a week.

 

They have 25 horses here, two entered in the fourth race on the opening day card and several stakes prospects.

 

“We’ve got Jimmy Bouncer here to run short on the grass,” Mora said. “Royal Albert Hall, Guns Loaded -- we’ve got quite a few.”

 

Kentucky Derby winner Nyquist, who summered here and at the San Luis Rey Downs training center in Bonsal, was retired  due to an ankle injury on October 30, six days before a scheduled meeting with California Chrome and Arrogate in the $6 million Breeders’ Cup Classic.  Nyquist’s career at stud begins early next year.

 

“The first week we felt like we lost half of our barn,” Mora said. “We wanted him to stay a little longer, but that didn’t work out. We were happy that we were able to retire him healthy enough that they won’t have to do anything before the breeding season starts.

 

“He had one little thing that was not serious, but to beat those (Breeders’ Cup Classic) guys you’ve got to have a horse that’s 110 percent.”

 

 

 

Veteran trainer Bill Spawr, 76, arrived early and struck quickly in what had to be considered a successful  2015 Bing Crosby season. Spawr’s was one of the first outfits to move in, with 30 horses and he struck for back-to-back victories in the final two races on the opening-day program.

 

Vanlose Stairway ($19.60) won the seventh and Born To Serve ($7.20) the eighth. Spawr would record four wins from 25 starters and finish in the money five more times, good for a tie for ninth in the trainer standings.

 

Spawr’s back with  approximately the same number of horses in Barn Y, just east of the grandstand, and with expected meeting-opening optimism.

 

“We’d hope to do as well, maybe even better,” Spawr said. “We’ve got four in (on opening day) so we’ll see how we do. The track’s good, weather’s good. We’re ready to go.”

 

Spawr’s early strike potential Friday comes in the form of Out Of Patience (1^st, 5-2), Desert Madam (2^nd, 2-1), Tribal Jewel (3^rd, 9-5) and Rye Patch (6^th, 5-2).

 

 

 

Saturday patrons to Del Mar during the Bing Crosby season will have an opportunity, free of charge, to win up to $1,000 weekly playing Fantasy Football on Sunday’s professional football games.

 

In partnership with AmTote, Del Mar will continue a test program started at the Santa Anita Autumn meeting based on a Fantasy Football format popular for millions of Americans throughout the NFL season.

 

Each Saturday at Del Mar, players can acquire a mutuel ticket-like voucher for use at several designated machines located on the east end of the second floor of the Clubhouse past the Customer Service desk. The vouchers give access to a pick-seven-like series of “races” in which the options are to select one quarterback, two running backs, two wide receivers, one tight end and a defense from a list of possibilities in each of those categories.

 

A thus-designated “team” scores points based on Sunday’s pro games. The highest scoring team or teams each week will divide the $1,000 pool. Highest scoring players, by positions, and teams will be posted Mondays on the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club website (dmtc.com) and payouts available for collection the following Thursday at the track, the first day of the live racing week.

 

Full rules, regulations and other information will be available on both Del Mar’s website and at the designated Fantasy Football terminals.

 

 

 

John Sadler-trained Curlin Rules was established the 2-1 favorite in a field of six for Saturday’s featured $75,000 Let It Ride Stakes for 3-year-olds at one mile on the Jimmy Durante Turf Course.

 

The son of 2007-08 Horse of the Year Curlin has two wins in eight career starts. A switch from dirt to turf for a Del Mar optional claimer on August 16resulted in a one-length victory at the Let It Ride distance. Curlin Rules was second in a 1 1/8-mile follow-up turf run on October 14 at Santa Anita.

 

The field from the rail out: Camino Del Paraiso (Ricardo Gonzalez, 5-1), Little Scotty (Kent Desormeaux, 4-1), Curlin Rules (Tyler Baze, 2-1), Defiantly (Gary Stevens, 15-1), Barhanpour (Mike Smith, 7-2) and Mittersill (Flavien Prat, 5-2).

 

The Let It Ride will go as the fourth on a nine-race card.

 
Source: Del Mar Thoroughbred Club