Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
DEL MAR Miller dials back meet expectations
Last fall, Peter Miller was the runaway winner of the training title at the Del Mar autumn meeting, winning 19 races. No other trainers had a win total in double digits.
“It was a phenomenal meet,” Miller said. “We had more wins than the leading jockey.”
Miller’s memory is correct. Flavien Prat won the riding title with 18 wins.
Miller does not expect to dominate this year’s fall meet at Del Mar, which opens Friday for a four-week run.
“We’ve run hard,” he said earlier this week. “I don’t think we have that many to run. We’re a little depleted.”
Miller, who is relocating his stable from nearby San Luis Rey Downs to Del Mar for the meeting, is expected to be among the leaders. Miller is on the verge of a personal milestone, with 996 career wins.
Miller’s last two wins were on the world stage when Stormy Liberal won the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint and Roy H won the BC Sprint last Saturday at Churchill Downs. Those runners won the same races at Del Mar 2017.
Miller said Stormy Liberal and Roy H are candidates for stakes in Dubai on March 30, World Cup Day, and could have prep races at Santa Anita in January. Stormy Liberal may run in the $75,000 Joe Hernandez Stakes on the hillside turf course on Jan. 1, while Roy H is possible for the Grade 2 Palos Verdes Stakes on Jan. 19, a race he won earlier this year.
“They’re really looking good,” he said. “All of them came out it really well.”
Friday, Miller has three runners on the eight-race program. He will start Way to Versailles in the $75,000 Kathryn Crosby Stakes, a restricted race for fillies and mares at a mile on turf. Way to Versailles was third in the restricted Swingtime Stakes on Oct. 7 at Santa Anita.
Prince Earl risks perfect mark
Prince Earl, unbeaten in two starts, will have his stakes debut in Saturday’s $75,000 Let It Ride Stakes for 3-year-olds at Del Mar after being withdrawn from the Grade 2 Twilight Derby last Sunday at Santa Anita.
Trainer Phil D’Amato said the Let It Ride Stakes “looks like a little easier on paper.”
The Let It Ride Stakes is run at a mile on turf and is restricted to horses who have not won a stakes with a firstplace purse of $60,000 or more at a mile or longer since April 1. Statebred races are excluded from that clause.
A California-bred by Paddy O’Prado, Prince Earl won a maiden race for Californiabreds on the hillside turf course at Santa Anita in May and an open-company optional claimer Sept. 1 at Del Mar. He is owned by Andrew and Irina Molasky and Todd Marshall.
◗ Apprentice jockey Assael Espinoza, who has been in the first five in the jockey standings at all Southern California meetings since late spring, has lost an appeal of a 10-day suspension issued in August and will miss the bulk of the upcoming Del Mar meeting. Espinoza can ride the first two days of the meeting, Friday and Saturday, and will resume riding on the final four days of the meeting – Nov. 29 through Dec. 2. He is suspended for Sunday and Monday, Nov. 15-18 and Nov. 22-25.
Espinoza, 18, was given the original suspension for careless riding that led to a two-horse spill on Aug. 4. One horse did not survive the spill. Jockey Corey Nakatani suffered an injury in the accident and has not ridden since.
◗ Trainer Hector Palma has been fined $5,000 for a fourth violation of a medication overage in the last year. In a ruling published last week, Santa Anita stewards cited Palma for an overage of the analgesic phenylbutazone found in a postrace test taken from Midnight Lilly when the 4-year-old filly finished second in a $16,000 claimer on Aug. 23 at Del Mar.
◗ Trainer Steve Knapp has been fined $750 after Ciao Luna, winner of the eighth race Sept. 6 at Los Alamitos, tested in excess of the permitted level of phenylbutazone. Ciao Luna won a $16,000 claimer for nonwinners of two.