Mokat and Metaboss seek Pacific Classic Day stakes wins at Del Mar
After three races in as many months against the best 3-year-old fillies in the country, trainer Richard Baltas couldn’t wait to get Mokat back on turf and back to Del Mar.
And the daughter of Uncle Mo, owned by JK Racing Stable, came through as Baltas hoped in the Grade II San Clemente Handicap on July 23. Without Songbird and Cathryn Sophia to contend with, as had been the case in her previous three races, and back on the Jimmy Durante Turf Course here, Mokat burst from mid-pack at the half-mile mark and won the mile race by 3 ¾ lengths going away under Kent Desormeaux.
Saturday, Mokat will be tasked to go an additional furlong with Norberto Arroyo, Jr., up in the Grade I $300,000 Del Mar Oaks, the final leg of the grass series for 3-year-old fillies here. Mokat is the 7-2 favorite in a field of 11 on oddsmaker Russ Hudak’s morning line.
“I think she’s just a better horse overall on the grass,” Baltas said Thursday morning. “She moves better, she’s got a better stride on the turf. I really think that’s what she had wanted all along. We ran in the (Grade I) Santa Anita Oaks and got second to Songbird and ran in the Kentucky Oaks, but I really think this is her calling.”
The Oaks will be the longest grass test for Mokat in a career that has produced two wins in nine starts with earnings of $285,040.
“I really don’t think the distance will be any problem,” Baltas said. “She loves Del Mar. She broke her maiden here, she’s got both of her career wins here on grass. And she’s been training great.”
The field for the Oaks, which goes as the sixth on an 11-race card, from the rail: Lady Valeur (Rafael Bejarano), Decked Out (Kent Desormeaux), Mokat (Norberto Arroyo, Jr.), Mines and Magic (Drayden Van Dyke), Barleysugar (Gary Stevens), Lynne’s Legacy (Victor Espinoza), Harmonize (Junior Alvarado), Cheekaboo (Santiago Gonzalez), Mrs. Norris (Tyler Baze), Stays in Vegas (Flavien Prat) and Tin Type Gal (Joe Talamo).
In Saturday’s other major stakes, the Grade II $250,000 Del Mar Handicap, trainer Phil D’Amato is stretching out Metaboss to 1 3/8 miles after the son of Street Boss showed an impressive turn of foot in winning a one-mile turf race by 1 ½ lengths in 1:34.40 on July 23. Metaboss is the 4-1 morning line third choice.
“We’re taking a shot,” D’Amato said. “Usually, turf courses like this lend themselves to horses with his kind of style. He’s the one-run type that can kind of cruise along and then kick it in the last quarter. Horses with that style can usually go farther in distance.
“We were here trying to just win a Ship-And-Win race, but after the last one he wasn’t (tired) at all. Before I even asked him Rafael Bejarano said, ‘This horse will run all day.’ So we put our heads together and came up with the Del Mar Handicap.
The Del Mar Handicap is a “Win and You’re In” qualifier for the $4 million Longines Breeders’ Cup Turf on November 5 at Santa Anita. Coincidentally, the Del Mar Handicap has been won the past two years by D’Amato-trained Big John B.
“This race has been good to me,” D’Amato. “I like this race and hopefully we can make it a three-peat.”
The field for the Del Mar Handicap, which goes as the eighth race, from the rail: Belisarius (Junior Alvarado), Quick Casablanca (Tyler Baze), Wanstead Gardens (Santiago Gonzalez), Metaboss (Rafael Bejarano), Power Foot (Norberto Arroyo, Jr.), Express Himself (Victor Espinoza), Flamboyant (Flavien Prat), Ashleyluvssugar (Gary Stevens), Finnegans Wake (Kent Desormeaux), El Huerfano (Brice Blanc), Patentar (Drayden Van Dyke) and Texas Ryano (Joe Talamo).
Source: Del Mar Thoroughbred Club