Hollendorfer regains his mojo

DEL MAR, Calif. – Jerry Hollendorfer needed four days on opening week at Del Mar to surpass his win total for the entire 2017 summer meeting.

Last year, Hollendorfer won with 5 of 80 starters. Through Sunday, he has 7 wins from 17 starters. Hollendorfer said the early success at this meeting helps the morale of his employees.

“It’s good for the barn,” Hollendorfer said, overseeing activity at his stable on Sunday morning.

The 72-year-old Hall of Fame trainer downplayed the frustrating summer of 2017.

“I’m a big boy,” he said. “I can take the abuse.”

In the first week of the meeting, Hollendorfer won with four horses expected to run in stakes.

Brill, the outstanding 2-yearold filly, is a leading candidate for the Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante on Sept. 1 after an easy win on July 18. The 3-year-old Shivermetimbers may run in the $100,000 Shared Belief Stakes on Aug. 25 after winning an optional claimer on July 18.

Hollendorfer had two wins Saturday. Rowayton won a maiden race for 2-year-olds, a likely prep for the Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity on Sept. 3. Vasilika won her fifth consecutive start in an optional claimer and could run in the Grade 2 John Mabee Stakes for fillies and mares on turf on Sept. 1.

Hollendorfer has a deep team of 2-year-olds this year, including Instagrand, a maiden race winner at Los Alamitos on June 29.

Hollendorfer said he is unlikely to ship Instagrand or Rowayton away from Del Mar this summer.

“I’d rather race at home if you can,” Hollendorfer said. “I’m not real keen on shipping them early in their careers.”

Sadler third in training wins

With four wins the first week of the meet, including Grade 2 stakes victories with Catalina Cruiser in the San Diego on Saturday and Catapult in the Eddie Read on Sunday, John Sadler moved into third place for career victories among trainers at Del Mar, passing Hall of Famer Ron McAnally.

Sadler, 61, now has 448 victories at this track, surpassing McAnally’s 445. Only Bob Baffert, who won one race opening week and has 481 wins, and the late Mike Mitchell, who had 476, have more wins at Del Mar than Sadler.

“I’m very proud of that,” said Sadler, who grew up near Los Angeles and has been based on this circuit throughout his career. “I’ve always had good meets here. Being a Southern California guy, it means a lot to me.”

Sadler also is moving up the all-time stakes wins list, too. He has 61, placing him sixth, and is one behind Richard Mandella. The late Bobby Frankel is fourth with 70. Baffert is the runaway leader with 124, and McAnally is second with 77.

Catapult on Sunday was making his second start since joining Sadler’s barn.

“He was a little rank the first time I ran him,” Sadler said. “I thought’d he’d progress, and he did.”

Catapult could return in the Grade 2 Del Mar Mile next month, but Sadler said he wasn’t certain of that, thinking the distance “might be a little short.”

Catapult was a 21-1 winner, less than one-third the price on Sadler’s other Sunday winner, the 74-1 bomber Kentan Road in race 4.

“Shocked,” Sadler said of Kentan Road’s win. “I don’t think I’ve ever had one pay that much.”

American Pastime vs. Roy H

American Pastime was fourth in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Del Mar last November in the second stakes appearance of his career. For his third stakes run, in Sunday’s Grade 1 Bing Crosby Stakes at Del Mar, American Pastime faces a field that includes Roy H, the winner of the BC Sprint last year and the 2017 champion sprinter.

American Pastime has not raced since the BC Sprint, and a comeback against such tough competition has tempered trainer Bob Hess Jr.’s expectations for the $300,000 Bing Crosby at six furlongs.

“Realistically, we can come back healthy, get something out of it, pick up a few bucks and go forward,” he said over the weekend.

American Pastime was turned out last winter because of sore feet diagnosed in an MRI, Hess said.

“We found some bone bruising in both front feet after the Breeders’ Cup,” Hess said. “I think it had been pestering him for much of the year.

“We gave him plenty of time and he’s ready to go.”

Owned by the partnership of Judith Huarte, Bert Lane, Mike Mowrey, Jan Steeper, and Gary Woods, American Pastime has won 3 of 7 starts and earned $255,100.

American Pastime had his final workout for the Bing Crosby on Sunday. Ridden by Corey Nakatani, who has the mount in the Bing Crosby, American Pastime worked five furlongs in 59.60 seconds from the gate. Hess timed the workout in 59.17 seconds.

“It was a good work,” Hess said. “He looks healthy and happy.”

The Bing Crosby winner will receive a fees-paid berth to the BC Sprint at Churchill Downs on Nov. 3.