Del Mar’s Summer Meet will go to the starting gate Friday, July 18, with nine or more entrants in all but one race on the 10-race card. The featured $100,000 Oceanside Stakes, to be contested at one mile on the turf, is the middle leg of a Pick 3 wager that includes a Maiden Special Weight sprint for 2-year-old fillies and a 6F allowance sprint for California breds. Here’s a closer look with a suggested $1 ticket that costs $30:
DMR 7th race (8:00 p.m. EST) -- Not sure where to go in this 5F MSW sprint with eight first-time starters, so I'll go 5-deep. Mark Glatt, the leading trainer at Del Mar last year, is 27/6-5-4 with first-time starters here the last two years at an average win mutuel of $14.40. He sends out IMNOTVANILLASKY, whose dam, Sambamzagammin, used her speed for a second-out MSW victory at Santa Anita and two stakes-placed showings as a 2-year-old. KISS ME COCO will try to follow the footsteps of her dam, Coco Kisses, who went wire-to-wire in 2 of her first 3 starts on dirt. Trainer Brian Koriner and jockey Armando Ayuso teamed for a win and three seconds with five first-time starters in the last year, all but one at 5-1 odds or higher. MUSTANG KNICKY is by speedy, multiple Grade 1-winning champion router Knicks Go (10-25, $9.2 million) and out of the dam, Vision Of Justice, who broke her maiden, won an allowance and was stakes placed in her first three short sprints. DRULINER hopped in the air at the start and spotted the field a city block, but she ran past several rivals in the final quarter mile and continued strong on the gallop out. CARA ROSE returns to the main track, where she closed from far back at 4-1/2F to finish second after a rough start in her debut, then ‘fought to mid-stretch’ on the turf and finished third after the troubled, odds-on favorite passed by for the win. She lures Fresu to ride, so use her on the ticket.
DMR 8th race (8:30 p.m. EST) -- IRON MAN CAL looms as an overwhelming favorite in the featured $100,000 Caesars Sportsbook Oceanside Stakes. He missed by a neck at 29-1 odds in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf at Del Mar, the scene of his maiden victory. He ‘leveled off in the lane’ on soft footing in the Grade 1 American Turf Stakes at 1-1/16 miles at Churchill Downs. He finished behind three rivals who are a combined 15-23 with $3.1 million in turf earnings – Henri Matisse, who won a G-1 race at Longchamp in France recently; Test Score, who won the G-1 Belmont Derby; and four-time graded stakes winner Zulu Kingdom. If there’s an upsetter in the field, DAY AND AGE could be it. He appears rounding to another good race as he looks to make it three wins in a row. He broke his maiden in his first turf go-round and repeated in a $100,000 allowance, sprinting to the lead, losing it early on the backstretch, then regaining it at the sixteenth pole before holding off the deep-closing favorites.
DMR 9th race (9:00 p.m. EST) -- LETMEIN stalked the 12-1 pace setter, engaged and briefly surged clear in early stretch, but couldn’t fend off the 4-to-5 winner – who spotted the field after a slow start -- in a stirring finish. PANUCO has shown steady improvement, earning his top speed figure in a $25,000 claiming sprint two months ago when claimed. He benefited when the leader drifted off the rail at the top of the stretch, but he ran away from the field with purpose and galloped out strongly. THE G M backed off a fast-paced duel that involved the winner, ranged up boldly 3-wide for the stretch drive but settled for second best in a long sprint. He figures the one to beat on the cutback to 6F in his second start this year.
Suggested $1 Pick 3
DMR 7th Race: 1, 2, 4, 5, 8
DMR 8th Race: 3, 8
DMR 9th Race: 4, 8, 11
Cost: $30
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