Istanford In Good Shape After Sandy Blue
Istanford, whose wire-to-wire 3 ¼-length victory in Friday’s Sandy Blue Handicap allowed her to join Enterprising as a winner of two stakes at the meeting, was fine in the aftermath, trainer Michael Stidham reported Saturday morning.
“She came out in good shape and we’re, of course, pleased with the effort,” Stidham said. “She’ll stay here for now, but we’re looking at a Grade I at Keeneland, the First Lady, or there’s a race at Santa Anita called the Autumn Mist.”
Double-entered in the Sandy Blue and Saturday’s Grade I Oaks, the decision to go in the shorter (one-mile) of the two races was made after given lengthy consideration by Stidham and the 3-year-old filly’s co-owner, Ike Thrash.
“Ike and I hashed it over pretty hard and just decided that the mile was better for her,” Stidham said. “I’m not going to say I’ll never go longer than a mile with her – she beat boys going 1 1/16 miles at Arlington Park – but a mile is a good distance for her.”
CASSE, PROCTOR STABLES TAKE DOUBLE SHOTS AT OAKS
Trainers Mark Casse and Tom Proctor will send out two fillies each in Saturday’s Grade I $300,000, Del Mar Oaks. And, by coincidence the stablemates drew side-by-side post positions.
Proctor’s Diversy Harbor and Famous Alice will break from the two inside gates while Casse’s My Conquestadory and Tepin go from posts Nos. 6 and 7.
Tepin, a daughter of Bernstein, and My Conquestadory, an Artie Schiller filly, finished 2-3 in the one-mile Grade II San Clemente Handicap on July 19. The Oaks is 1 1/8 miles.
“They both ran well in the (San Clemente) and hopefully they’ll improve and run even better this time,” Casse said. “It looks like there’ll be some pace in this race, which there wasn’t a whole lot of last time, and that will give them something to run down.”
Diversy Harbor was fourth as the favorite in the San Clemente. Famous Alice has been given a respite since finishing second in the Grade III Seniorita at Santa Anita on June 28.
“They’re both training well and they both deserve a shot in this (Grade I) race,” said Aimee Dollase, in charge of the preparation with Proctor back in Chicago for Arlington Million Day.
WHAT’S IN A NAME – The Grade I Del Mar Oaks is the championship race of the season for three year old fillies. Oaks is a traditional term indicating a title deciding race for fillies, just as the term Derby is for three year old males.
JOCKEY’S RACE: LESS COULD BE MORE THAN ENOUGH
With Kent Desormeaux, Elvis Trujillo and Rafael Bejarano recording one win each yesterday the order atop the jockey standings remained unchanged. Desormeaux and Trujillo have 19 wins each and Bejarano 17 with Mike Smith in fourth with 16.
The evident parity through 22 racing days, with 14 remaining, suggests that the lowest victory total in the last 42 years might prove good enough to win the riding championship.
John Ramirez won the 1972 title with 36 wins and Alex Solis took the 2001 crown with the same number. The record for fewest wins in a title-winning season is 24 by Tim Gray in 1938. Ralph Neves won with 26 the following year. There have only been four seasons in 74 at the track in which 30-something wins topped the list.
Bejarano averaged 48 wins a year in prevailing in 2012-13. Joel Rosario averaged 54 wins in a three-year reign from 2009-2011. Bill Shoemaker holds the unapproachable record for victories in a season, 94 in 1954.
TRAINER’S RACE: COULD IT BE MILLER TIME AGAIN?
Peter Miller, whose 12 wins top Jerry Hollendorfer by two, won the 2012 training title with 21 wins. Miller has finished in the top seven in the standings for five years in a row while averaging nearly 14 wins per season.
The 47-year-old Carlsbad resident is optimistic about his chances for title No. 2.
“It’s a tough meeting. It’s very hard to win races here,” Miller said. “But we’re having a good meeting and we’ve got some live horses still to run. So, hopefully, we can hold off the challengers.
“We’ve got more horses than we’ve had in the past, so we’ve got as good a chance as anybody.
Bob Hess, Jr., who won back-to-back titles in 1991 and 1992, with 18 and 22 wins respectively, is third in the standings with nine wins, all of them ridden by Kent Desormeaux. It’s a throwback of more than 20 years when the Hess-Desormeaux combination clicked with regularity, Desormeaux winning riding titles in 1992 and ’93.
“It’s all good,” Hess said. “It’s great to see Kent back in top form. We always gear up for Del Mar every year but this year it seems to be working a little better for us. Hopefully we can continue.”