D'Amato has a pair in quest for 4th straight San Juan Capistrano
Santa Anita’s traditional closing day feature on Sunday, the Grade 3, $125,000 San Juan Capistrano Stakes, could be the icing on the cake for current meet leading trainer Phil D'Amato. He’ll send out a pair of veterans, 6-year-old Rijeka and 8-year-old Red King, to try and capture his fourth San Juan in a row.
Both Rijeka and Red King figure prominently among a field of eight 3-year-olds and up going a marathon 1 3/4 miles on turf with a hillside start.
Irish-bred Rijeka is in sharp current form. He’ll be making his third start off an extended layoff on Sunday. He comes off a clever starter allowance score going over Santa Anita’s grass for 1 1/4 miles guided by turf ace Joe Bravo. Rijeka will likely lag early and make a big run late with “Jersey Joe,” who is currently ninth in the standings with 28 wins as he now approaches the one-year mark as a full-time rider in Southern California. A 6-year-old gelding owned by Slam Dunk Racing and Michael Nentwig, Rijeka has placed in four turf stakes but has yet to win one.
A full horse at age eight, Philip Belmonte and Gordon Jacobsen’s Red King is the more accomplished of D’Amato’s two entries. Red King will be making his fourth appearance in the San Juan Capistrano, having won it in 2020 and finishing third last year. Ridden by Abel Cedillo, “Red” sat much closer to the early pace and finished evenly to be beaten by 1 1/4 lengths when finishing second going 1 1/4 miles in a turf allowance on May 22. Far back early in the San Luis Rey Stakes (G3) on March 12, he lacked the necessary closing kick and was fifth, beaten 5 1/4 lengths.
Red King is 19: 5-2-7 over the Santa Anita lawn and will likely be the post-time favorite on Sunday. With Cedillo back aboard, the son of English Channel seeks his third-lifetime stakes win in what will be his 41st career start.
Marc Detampel, Fergus Galvin and E Squared Stables’ Modus Operandi ships in from Churchill Downs and looms a very serious threat from off the pace with Umberto Rispoli up. A 4-year-old gelding trained by Brendan Walsh, Modus Operandi has one win from six stateside starts and was most recently a close eighth, beaten 3 1/2 lengths in the Louisville Stakes (G3) going 1 1/2 miles. A 4-year-old gelding by European superstar Frankel, Modus Operandi was bred in Ireland by Bobby Flay Thoroughbreds.