Divisional Champions Back at Del Mar
Multiple divisional award winners from the 2012 Del Mar meeting being aimed for return engagements this season. A review and status update:
Top 2-year-old: Rolling Fog. Trainer Bob Baffert’s 11th Del Mar Futurity winner was sidelined with shin problems shortly after his victory in September. He resumed training at Hollywood Park in April but an unrelated injury has him back on the shelf.
Two-year-old Filly: Executiveprivilege. The Debutante winner ran her record to 5-for-5 before finishing second to Debutante runner-up Beholder in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies in a 2012 campaign that produced $940,000. She has been training at Santa Anita and Hollywood Park and is entered in Thursday’s seventh race for her 2013 debut.
Three-year-old Filly: Lady of Shamrock. Trainer John Sadler is contemplating the John C. Mabee Stakes on August 11 for the 2012 Oaks winner. In 2013, Lady of Shamrock has one win via disqualification, two seconds and one third-place finish in graded stakes at Santa Anita, Belmont Park and Hollywood Park.
Older Filly or Mare: Include Me Out. Trainer Ron Ellis is pointing the 5-year-old mare for a title defense in the Clement L. Hirsch Stakes on Saturday, August 3. Include Me Out won the Desert Stormer Handicap in her 2013 debut on June 16 at Hollywood Park.
Older Horse/Grass Horse: Acclamation. Has been retired to stud at owner E.W. “Bud” Johnston’s Old English Rancho with recent reports indicating 38 mares in foal to Del Mar’s 2011 Horse of the Meeting.
Sprinter: Amazombie. Recovery time from an ankle injury incurred this spring in a collision with another horse in training at Betfair Hollywood Park means that the 7-year-old gelding is unlikely to race at Del Mar. “Probably not, but there’s always hope,” trainer Bill Spawr said. “Because he’s a real racehorse.”