Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Blacker seeks first graded win
DEL MAR, Calif. – Trainer Dan Blacker arrived at Del Mar in mid-July in search of his first career stakes win.
When the season reached the halfway point last weekend, Blacker had two stakes wins – in both the north and south sides of the state.
Double Touch was the upset winner of the Wickerr Stakes at 29-1 at Del Mar on July 22. Last Saturday, Ritzy A.P. won the Joseph Grace Handicap at Santa Rosa as the 4-5 favorite.
Blacker will be after his first win in a graded stakes when Double Touch starts in a crowded field in Sunday’s Grade 2 Del Mar Mile on turf.
A 4-year-old British-bred gelding by Dutch Art, Double Touch has won 4 of 13 starts and earned $138,902, all for the partnership of Radley Equine, Roadrunner Racing, Rick Gold, Scott McDonald, and Ken Smole. Double Touch was imported from England in the winter of 2016-17 and has won three of eight starts in this country.
The Wickerr Stakes was Double Touch’s fifth stakes appearance. His best finish in prior stakes was a sixth in the Siren Lure Stakes on the hillside turf course at Santa Anita in June.
Blacker, 36, will be the first to admit Double Touch will need a fortunate trip in the $200,000 Del Mar Mile.
“He needs everything to go his way,” Blacker said. “He needs a solid pace, a good ride and he needs to be on his game. He can be up and down.”
The Del Mar Mile is the last of four graded stakes at Del Mar next weekend and could develop into one of the best betting races of the 36-day summer meeting, which continues through Sept. 3.
The other candidates are Big Score, Bombard, Bowies Hero, Catapult, Fly to Mars, Grecian Fire, Hunt, Next Shares, Om, Sharp Samurai, True Valour, and What a View.
Catapult won the Grade 2 Eddie Read Stakes on July 22 by a neck over Sharp Samurai.
All of those probable starters are stakes winners except for Next Shares, who has been beaten a half-length in two Grade 1 races this year at Santa Anita – the Kilroe Mile in March and the Shoemaker Mile in May.
Enola Gray retires
Enola Gray, a six-time stakes winner, has been retired and will be bred in 2019, trainer Phil D’Amato said Sunday.
A 5-year-old mare, Enola Gray won 7 of 12 starts and earned $585,100, all for owner and breeder Nick Alexander. She won all her stakes in California, from 2016 to 2017. Enola Gray started once this year, finishing fourth in the Grade 2 Royal Heroine Stakes for fillies and mares at Santa Anita in April. She had three workouts in July, but was removed from training in recent weeks.
“It was one thing after another,” D’Amato said. “She had something come up.”
By Grazen, Enola Gray won the Grade 3 Wilshire Stakes at a mile on turf in July 2017 and five stakes for California-breds in her two-year career.
Enola Gray had a splashy debut, winning a maiden race for statebred females by 16 1/4 lengths at 6 1/2 furlongs at Santa Anita in April 2016.
Hollendorfer eyes double
Trainer Jerry Hollendorfer has won the Del Mar Futurity and the Del Mar Debutante, but never both in the same year. He has a strong chance to accomplish the feat this year with the colt Instagrand and the filly Brill.
Instagrand is bound for the Futurity on closing day Sept. 3 following his dominating performance on Saturday in the Best Pal Stakes, for which he received a Beyer Speed Figure of 92. He is now 2 for 2.
Hollendorfer was particularly pleased with the way Instagrand broke. He was off a bit slowly in his first start, and on Saturday he had to wait in the gate while some of his rivals acted up before being loaded.
“He came out of the gate really well,” Hollendorfer said.
Brill, who won her debut earlier in the meet, will train right up to the Debutante on Sept. 1. She went five furlongs in 59.80 seconds Saturday.
“Great work,” Hollendorfer said.
Both the Futurity and Debutante are Grade 1, $300,000 races.
Hollendorfer trains both Instagrand and Brill for Larry Best’s OXO Equine. Drayden Van Dyke rides both horses.
Battle of Midway works
Trainer Jerry Hollendorfer hopes to get a race into Battle of Midway, last year’s Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile winner, before the meet ends Sept. 3, and Battle of Midway moved closer to that Sunday with a six-furlong work in 1:13.80 under Flavien Prat.
“He galloped out well. I’d like to run him here if I could,” Hollendorfer said.
Battle of Midway could be nominated to the $75,000 Harry Brubaker Stakes on Aug. 22, but Hollendorfer would have time to get only one more work into him. The work Sunday was his first six-furlong drill since being put back into training.
Battle of Midway was at stud earlier this year but was found to be subfertile and was put back into training.
Fillies bound for Saratoga
The unbeaten 3-year-old filly Dream Tree and Moonshine Memories, who was scratched from the Rancho Bernardo on Sunday, both are bound for the Grade 2, $250,000 Prioress Stakes on Sept. 2 at Saratoga.
Dream Tree has not raced since winning the Las Virgenes Stakes at Santa Anita in February, but she has been training sensationally at Del Mar for her return for Bob Baffert, including a six-furlong drill from the gate Sunday in 1:12.40, the best of 19 at the distance.
Moonshine Memories, trained by Simon Callaghan, went five furlongs in 1:02.40 on Monday.
Also bound for Saratoga will be Baffert trainees Abel Tasman and Marley’s Freedom, both of whom worked Monday for Grade 1 races on the Travers undercard Aug. 25. Abel Tasman, headed to the Personal Ensign, went five furlongs in 1:00.40, while Marley’s Freedom, ticketed to the Ballerina, worked seven furlongs in 1:26.20.