Del Mar: 8-year-old Count Again headlines Sunday’s Eddie Read

The one to beat might be the oldest of the bunch. The 8-year-old veteran gelding Count Again is the morning-line favorite for the 50th running of the Grade 2, $250,000 Eddie Read Stakes on Sunday at 9:09 p.m. EDT at Del Mar.

This year’s renewal of the 1 1/8-mile turf headliner has drawn nine older horses for the ninth of 11 races. Sunday also will offer a mandatory Pick 6 pool payout that easily could rise into the millions.

Count Again comes in off a 2 1/4-length tally in the Shoemaker Mile (G1) at Santa Anita, although that was 14 months ago. The old pro by Awesome Again became a millionaire that day, running his earnings to $1,069,915 in registering his seventh victory, all on the green. He is owned by Agave Racing Stable and Sam-Son Farm and has been training forwardly for this comeback.

Del Mar’s morning-line maker Jon White was impressed enough with his prior record and current training to make Count Again the 3-1 favorite in the headliner.

Umberto Rispoli picks up the mount on the bay for trainer Phil D’Amato and will break from the outside gate for the run down the infield chute.

The chief threats to the top one appear to reside on the shed rows near him in the D’Amato barn. The conditioner also will saddle Little Red Feather and Sterling Stable’s Gold Phoenix, Little Red Feather and Madaket Stable’s Balnikhov and Rockingham Ranch’s Masteroffoxhounds.

Read was Del Mar’s first publicist going back to the track’s opening in 1937. He was a mainstay for more than three decades, and this race was named in his honor after his passing with the first running going off in 1974.

Sunday’s mandatory payout in the Pick 6 means there will be no carryovers, and all money in the pool will be paid no matter the number of winners. There is a potential the pot could rise to the $2.5 million-$3 million range. The Pick 6 will conducted on the final six races on the card, in this case 6-11.