Del Mar hosts graded-stakes doubleheader Saturday

Del Mar will offer another stakes doubleheader Saturday, one on turf and the other on its one-mile dirt oval.

The grass feature is the 73rd edition of the Grade 2 Yellow Ribbon Handicap, a 1 1/16-mile spin for fillies and mares age 3 and up that carries a $200,000 purse. The second event is the 55th running of the Grade 3 Best Pal Stakes, contested over six furlongs for 2-year-olds and has a $150,000 purse.

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The Yellow Ribbon, which was known as the Palomar from 1945 to 2011, drew a field of eight, with sixmares and two fillies and nary a 3-year-old in sight. The likely favorite is Hang the Moon, a multiple stakes winner who will have regular rider Kazushi Kimura in the tack. The bay 5-year-old by Uncle Mo has won five races and more than $425,000 and has drawn the role of morning-line favorite at 3-1. She comes out of the barn of solid turf trainer Phil D’Amato.

Also of note in the test is Liguria, also a multiple stakes winner who has top turf rider Umberto Rispoli named on board. The daughter of War Front, also a 5-year-old bay, hails from the shedrow of Mike McCarthy and can boast of four wins and more than $400,000 in earnings.

Yet another runner of note is Heredia, who will ship in from the east by direction of top trainer Graham Motion. She, too, is a 5-year-old bay mare and also a daughter of Uncle Mo and will have the saddle services of Del Mar’s top rider in Juan Hernandez.

The Yellow Ribbon goes as race 9 on a 10-race card.

The Best Pal, which previously was known as the Balboa Stakes from its inception in 1967 through 1995, has lured only five runners, and one of them, St Petersburg, was supplemented to the dash for $1,500.

St Petersburg races out of the barn of top trainer Bob Baffert, who has another horse in the lineup in Desert Gate. The Omaha Beach colt, a $260,000 purchase at a 2-year-old in training sale earlier this year in Florida, was a sharp winner of his lone start at Santa Anita in June and has been training forwardly since. He was made a stout 3-5 favorite in the short field, and Hernandez has the call.

The Best Pal will be race 4 on the program.