Euroears Takes Charge in Bing Crosby

James and Marilyn Helzer’s amazingly fast Euroears, with jockey Rafael Bejarano along for the ride, set a track record of 1:08.17 Sunday with a brilliant performance in the featured Grade I $250,000 Bing Crosby Stakes before 17,109 fans.

Euroears, a son of Lanfuhr seemingly hitting his peak at the advanced age of 7, dashed into command at the break and held a clear lead throughout the six-furlong sprint, winning by 1 ¼ lengths to smash the mark of 1:08.29 set by Cost of Freedom in  2008.

For trainer Bob Baffert, Euroears completed a coast-to-coast Grade I double, the conditioner winning the $1 million Haskell Invitational with three-year-old Coil at Monmouth Park in New Jersey. Mike Marlow, an aide to Baffert, saddled Euroears for the Crosby Stakes at Del Mar in the absence of Baffert.

Smiling Tiger, the even-money favorite under Joel Rosario, broke a trifle slowly from his rail post position but closed stoutly to get up for second, a half-length in front of Amazombie, with Carbonite fourth in the field of six sprinters. Withdrawn from the race was Coffee Boy.

Euroears went postward the strong second choice at 2-1 and returned $6.80, $3.60 and $2.80 after recording his tenth victory in 19 starts. First money of $150,000 increased the veteran speedster’s earnings beyond the million dollar mark, to $1,041,562.

Smiling Tiger, who conceded two pounds to the winner, 123-121, paid $2.60 and $2.10, while Amazombie paid $2.40 to show.

With a carryover of $169,635 from Saturday and $1,150,315 bet Sunday,  the Pick Six  pool totaled $1,319,950 and five bettors selected six winners for payoffs of $156,830 each.

Bejarano and Joe Talamo each had a single winner on the program, meaning that Bejarano retained a one-winner lead in the standings, 14-13, after two weeks of the seven-week Del Mar season.