Del Mar: Matriarch is an East Coast-West Coast showdown

The 43rd running of the Grade 1 Matriarch, the final stakes race of Del Mar's 2023 Bing Crosby Season, has attracted a strong field of fillies and mares who will go one mile on the turf.

Absent from this year’s race is Regal Glory, winner of the last two runnings of the Matriarch. She’s been retired as a broodmare. But her trainer, Chad Brown, is back and with as strong a hand as ever.

Brown has won the Matriarch three years running and five of the last six years. This year he’s shipped four horses from his East Coast base, all bringing impressive credentials to Del Mar.

Whitebeam heads up the contingent. Already a Grade 1 winner in 2023, the daughter of Caravaggio is owned and was bred by Juddmonte Farms. She made her U.S. debut in April when she ran a close second in the Plenty of Grace Stakes at Aqueduct. Brown then sent her to Pimlico, where she won the Gallorette (G3) on Preakness Day followed by a victory in the Diana (G1) at Saratoga in July, when she nailed stablemate In Italian in the final jump.

The only blemish on her resume came last out when she ran fourth in the First Lady (G1) at Keeneland.

“Her last race was disappointing,” Brown said of the Matriarch’s morning-line favorite. “Flavien Prat came back and felt that she really wasn’t happy down inside and covered up. It just wasn’t the trip like the Diana when she was in the clear. So we’ll kind of work out a different trip for her this time.”

Brown also sends out Surge Capacity, a daughter of Flintshire who put in an eye-popping run in the Valley View (G3) last out at Keeneland.

“She had a lot of trouble in there and really had no business recovering and winning that race,” Brown said. “Most horses wouldn’t have been able to do it. She’s a very talented horse. She’s a 3-year-old and facing older, so that will be a challenge for her. But she drew a good post and hopefully works out a good trip.”

Fluffy Socks returns to California, where she has run at least once a year since she was a 2-year-old and won the Jimmy Durante (G3) at Del Mar in 2020.

“There’s a lot of pace in the race, and it could set up very well for her,” Brown said. “The main reason for going out there, besides being a Grade 1, is that she has done well in California.”

Brown’s fourth entry in the race is Beaute Cachee, a French-bred who has finished first or second in all four of her races since coming to the states this year.

Brown doesn’t have a corner on the market when it comes to shippers running in the Matriarch. Trainer Bill Mott has sent out Wakanaka, a hard-hitting 5-year-old who has been sprinting in her last three races.

The locals in the Matriarch also are formidable. Queen Goddess won last year’s American Oaks (G1) at Santa Anita. The daughter of Empire Maker came back from a five-month layoff in November and just missed to Closing Remarks in the Goldikova (G2) at Santa Anita.

”She ran super, and it looks like she’ll move forward off of that race,” trainer Michael McCarthy said.

Jockey Luis Saez flies in to ride her.

“He won the Pegasus (Filly and Mare Turf, G3) on her earlier this year,” McCarthy said of Saez, “and he’s been nice enough to stick with her.”

Closing Remarks is back for the Matriarch. The Goldikova was her fourth Grade 2 victory of 2023, including wins in the Yellow Ribbon and the John Mabee during the Del Mar summer meet.

“She’s doing very, very well,” said trainer Carla Gaines. “We got a couple of nice works into her. She doesn’t have to do a lot because she’s been dancing every dance. This is the next logical step.”

The Matriarch is race 7 on the nine-race closing day card. Approximate post time is 6:30 p.m. EST.