Instilled Regard nominated to try turf in Del Mar's Hollywood Derby

Nominations for the eight graded stakes to be contested over the final two weeks of the Del Mar meeting closed Thursday.

Looking over the lists, Racing Secretary David Jerkens was pleased with the response from major East Coast-based trainers with horses they deem in need of some sunshine and a graded stakes mark on their resume.

“It’s pretty much on a par with the response we’ve gotten the past couple years,” Jerkens said. “I’m definitely satisfied with the response from trainers, both out of state and locally.”

A nomination is not a commitment to run, only a statement of interest backed by a nominal fee. But successful shipping ventures like those made by trainers Chad Brown, James Toner, George Weaver and Anthony Dutrow last year give encouragement to try again.

Chad Brown, the nation’s leading trainer for earnings in 2018, took the Cecil B. DeMille with Analyze It and the Matriarch with Off Limits last year and has five nominated to the graded stakes. The Hollywood Derby and the Matriarch, both Grade 1 races worth $300,000 on the closing weekend, December 1-2, are the premier events of the meeting. Brown has nominated two for the Derby and three for Matriarch.

Brown’s Derby duo is Instilled Regard and Raging Bull. Instilled Regard would be trying the turf for the first time to end a 2018 campaign that included fourth-place finishes to Triple Crown winner Justify in both the Santa Anita Derby and Kentucky Derby. Raging Bull has made six starts, all on turf, with four wins and a second and earnings of $404,500.

In the Matriarch, Brown’s trio consists of foreign-breds Quidura (England), Rymska (France) and Uni (England). All three have graded stakes wins since August and, combined, Rymska and Uni have seven wins in their last eight starts.

In addition to the Brown bunch in the Derby there are five notable potential shippers in the Derby for trainers Christophe Clemente (2), Thomas Morley, Graham Motion and Weaver, who won the Jimmy Durante last year with Daddy Is a Legend.

Brown’s group in the Matriarch has potential out-of-state company from six fellow invaders, most notably Bellavais from Todd Pletcher, the aforementioned Daddy Is a Legend from Weaver and Starship Jubilee, a stakes winner in Canada for trainer Kevin Attard.