Racing! Del Mar revs up for third week

Hello, my name is John Cherwa and welcome back to our horse racing newsletter as we catch up on some odds and ends.

It’s been a while since I’ve gotten reaction to something like I did from the posting of the stewards’ minutes of the hearing for jockey Norberto Arroyo, Jr., who showed up at the meeting wearing just two towels. The stewards did not identify where the towels were draped.

Norberto, I’m afraid, is on a roll when it comes to infractions. We’ll go into more details when we have them from the stewards’ minutes but he accumulated three more rulings this meeting in the past few days. He’s responsible for five of the 20 rulings this Del Mar meeting.

He’s suspended for seven days (Aug. 2, 3, 4, 7,8, 9, 10) for careless riding and interference. (The length is based on it being his third offense in 60 days and not a reflection on the severity of the interference.) And then fines for riding a golf cart in a restricted area and entering the track during morning renovation.

Del Mar handle

Del Mar is down about 12% a race and 18% overall after the first two weeks of the meeting. The track has run six fewer races than it did to this point last year.

The on-track handle is down from $17.315 million to $14.131 million or 18.4% total of all races or 12.4 per race. The all sources number sticks to those declines with a $117.459 million in 2018 to $95.888 million this year.

What’s next for Hollendorfer?

There is no doubt that Jerry Hollendorfer will be racing the rest of the meeting at Del Mar. The case filed by the California Thoroughbred Trainers will continue to crawl toward its conclusion, unless the parties decide to call it off. There will be a status conference in October, more than a month after the end of the meeting.

Meanwhile, the CTT has not filed in court against The Stronach Group for Hollendorfer’s inclusion at Golden Gate Fields and Santa Anita. Instead, on July 24, the CTT invoked Rule 2043 to the California Horse Racing Board, which should “immediately investigate the allegations and may refer the complaint to the Board of Stewards appointed for the meeting where the violation is alleged to have occurred…� In this case, the allegation is that Hollendorfer is not allowed to race and never even had a hearing.

The track will argue they have the right to refuse anyone access to their business. This time, the CHRB, which wants to have nothing to do with this situation, could be the final arbiter, if and when they act.

Training accident at Del Mar

Bowl of Soul, a 3-year-old filly for Bob Baffert suffered a rare hind fetlock injury during training on Monday and was euthanized. It was the third fatality during training at Del Mar. The first two deaths happened in a freak accident two weeks ago when Charge a Bunch threw his rider and ran head first into Carson Valley, who was also trained by Baffert. You can read more the fatalities. Just click here.

Answer Man

It’s been way, way too long since we’ve done an answer man segment. You have to admit, things got a bit distracting during the first half of the year. But, things seemed to have settled down.

So, email me your question. Nothing is too simple because if you are wondering something, likely so are others. Just put answer man in the subject field. As always, can’t get to them all but I’ll do my best to get to ones that can actually be answered. Email: [email protected].

Who goofed, I’ve got to know?

I’ll share this one with the stewards. In the ruling we ran on Monday on Flavien Prat getting three days, we identified the race as the Daisycutter Handicap on June 20 because that’s what it said in the minutes. However, I should have caught the fact that Santa Anita was still running at that time and it was actually July 20. Sorry about that.

Del Mar preview

It’s a seven-race card starting at 2 p.m. There is a stakes race, two turf races, three races for maidens and two starter allowances races, which is a really fancy name for a claiming race in which the horses can’t be claimed.

The $100,000 CTBA Stakes is the feature race, 5 ½ furlongs for Cal-bred 2-year-old fillies. These are all very young and untested horses. The favorite, at 2-1, is Cholula Lips for trainer Mike Harrington and jockey Rafael Bejarano. She won her first race at Santa Anita and then finished second in a stakes race at Churchill Downs.

The second favorite is Bulletproof One at 5-2. Peter Miller and Norberto Arroyo, Jr. are the team on this horse. She won her first race at Golden Gate by eight lengths, then won at Pleasanton (fair circuit) by 9 ¼ lengths.

Here are the field sizes, in order: 9, 7, 10, 10 (1 also eligible), 10 (2 ae), 8 and 10 (1 ae).

Bob Ike’s Dmr pick of the day

SEVENTH RACE: Exacta Box 7-9

Starter allowance turf event to close out the card and I will make an exacta box with a pair of 6-1 shots in Spanish Bay and Honos Man. Spanish Bay looks like the controlling speed of the race and will be tough to collar if he is as effective on turf and can get the distance. Honos Man switched to grass and romped by nearly five lengths vs. maiden claimers at Churchill Downs. Let’s try to get them to finish 1-2 in here.

Sunday’s result: Raglan Road (5-1) got a great trip sitting behind the leaders inside but lacked the needed punch and was out-finished for second near the wire.

Bob Ike is a Partner/VP of Horsebills.com (here’s a video) and the proprietor of BobIkePicks.com (full-card picks, 3 Best Plays and betting strategy).

Final thought

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Any thoughts, you can reach me at [email protected]. You can also feed my ego by following me on Twitter @jcherwa

Now, the star of the show, Wednesday’s entries.