Personal Diary Might Face Males in Eddie Read

Personal Diary, the winner of the Grade I Del Mar Oaks in 2014, might be sent out after another highest-level victory in Saturday’s $400,000 Eddie Read.

 

The 4-year-old daughter of City Zip is one of four horses scheduled to ship to Del Mar on Wednesday from Kentucky for husband and wife trainers Phil and Victoria Oliver. Personal Diary has been nominated to the $80,000 Osunitas Stakes on the same day as the Read and her connections will make the decision close to race day.

 

The Osunitas is 1 1/16 miles for fillies and mares, the Eddie Read 1 1/8 miles. Both will be contested over the Jimmy Durante Turf Course.

 

“We know we’ll be able to get in the Osunitas and the Eddie Read is kind of a backup plan,” Phil Oliver said recently by phone from Kentucky. “We’ll wait and see. The Eddie Read might not be as strong as it has been in the past, she’s been training well and we know she likes Del Mar.”

 

Personal Diary made a last-to-first charge to take last year’s Del Mar Oaks by 2 ¾ lengths under Corey Nakatani to provide Victoria Oliver with her  first career Grade I victory and Nakatani the 101^st Del Mar stakes triumph of his career.

 

The Oaks victory highlighted a 2014 campaign in which Personal Diary earned $282,829 for owners G. Watts Humphrey Jr., Victoria Oliver’s father, and Ian Banwell. Personal Diary has raced three times in 2015, all in graded stakes, with a fourth-place finish the best result.