Since 2016, Chad Brown has won 13 races during Del Mar’s annual Turf Festival with horses shipped west from his eastern base.
And Phil D’Amato is closing in on a third straight trainer’s championship during Del Mar’s fall meeting.
Over the next two days, Brown and D’Amato will go head-to-head in three of the five stakes races completing the Turf Festival as Del Mar closes its 10th fall meeting.
Brown will have two of the four horses shipped in from the east for Saturday’s Grade I Hollywood Derby — including Program Trading, the morning-line favorite for the 1 1/8-mile, turf challenge for 3-year-old horses.
And Brown has four horses entered to D’Amato’s three in Sunday’s Grade I Matriarch Stakes, a 1-mile turf test that has attracted 10 older fillies and mares.
Each Grade I race will have a $300,000 purse.
D’Amato will have three horses in both of Saturday’s support stakes on the turf — the $100,000 Grade III Jimmy Durante (for 2-year-old fillies) and the $100,000 ungraded Storm Liberal (five furlongs for older horses). Brown’s Lady de Berry is the early favorite in the Durante. Trainer Richard Mandella’s Lane Way is the early favorite in the Stormy Liberal.
Overall, D’Amato has 10 horses entered in the five weekend stakes. Brown has seven.
Brown’s two entries in Saturday’s Hollywood Derby — Program Training and Redistricting — were bred in Great Britain.
Program Training won the Grade I Saratoga Derby on Aug. 5, then placed second in the Grade III Virginia Derby at ColonIal Downs in September. Flavien Prat will be aboard Program Training for a fourth straight race.
The early second-favorite is Webslinger, who flew west for trainer Mark Casse after finishing third behind Hollywood Derby rivals Seal Team and Silver Knott in the Grade II Twilight Derby at Santa Anita on Nov. 4 Tyler Gaffalione flies in to ride Webslinger, who also ran second to Program Trading in the Saratoga Derby. Seal Team (Umberto Rispoli) and Silver Knott (J.P. Spencer) are the next picks in the nine-horse field.
Prat will also be aboard Lady de Berry in the Durante. Gaffalione will be aboard the Casse-trained Go With Gusto. Mike Smith will be aboard the Richard Mandella-trained Lane Way in the Stormy Liberal Stakes.
The stakes races go off as the third, fifth and seven races on the nine-race card.
Llorona wins debut
Llorona, a 3-year-old daughter of Mendelssohn and a younger half-sister of Corniche who had a $750,000 purchase price as a yearling, won her debut in Friday’s first race under Prat. Llorona ($2.80) won by 5 ¾ lengths.
Other Friday winners — Second race: Someone Like You (Jose Valdivia Jr., $13.40); Third race: Back On Track (Armando Aguilar, $15.20); Fourth race: Medoro (Antonio Fresu, $29.00); Fifth race: Zombo Bombo (Diego Herrera, $7.20); Sixth race: Stay and Scam (Mario Gutierrez, $6.80); Seventh race: Vulin (Tyler Baze, $19.60), and Eighth race: Stolen Treasure (Edwin Maldonado, $16.00).
Trainer George Papaprodromou had a pair of winners Friday with Zombo Bombo and Vulin.
2024 Del Mar dates set
Meanwhile, Del Mar has announced dates for both its 2024 summer and fall meetings.
The featured, 85th summer meeting will open its 31-day run July 20 (Saturday) and run through Sept. 8 (Sunday). The opener is slightly later than usual because the San Diego County Fair will end July 7 next year rather than the traditional July 4.
The 11th fall — or Bing Crosby — meeting will start on Oct. 31, 2024, and end on Dec. 1. Del Mar will host the Breeders’ Cup on No. 1 and 2.
