Warren’s Showtime faces males

Warren’s Showtime led by a length in the stretch of the Grade 1 Del Mar Oaks at 1 1/8 miles on turf on Aug. 22 before finishing 1 1/2 lengths behind upset winner Red Lark.

Warren’s Showtime will have a final chance for a stakes win at the Del Mar summer meeting when she starts on the same course and distance in Sunday’s Grade 2 Del Mar Derby.

It could be an historic race. A filly has never won the Del Mar Derby, which was first run in 1945. Warren’s Showtime may not be the only filly in the field. Trainer Peter Miller said late Wednesday morning that he plans to enter the filly California Kook, who has yet to win a stakes and was second in the Del Mar Oaks.

Trainer Craig Lewis said the decision to start Warren’s Showtime was based on the absence of a standout runner among the male candidates, and a $200,000 purse.

“That’s why I’m running,” Lewis said. “In the real world, that’s money. She’s a very good filly.”

In her first start of the meeting, Warren’s Showtime was third in the Grade 2 San Clemente Stakes against fillies at a mile on turf July 25.

Lewis was working Wednesday to finalize a jockey assignment. Mike Smith rode Warren’s Showtime in the Del Mar Oaks, but cannot ride at Del Mar on Sunday or Monday. Jockeys cannot return to the current summer meeting at Del Mar if they ride at another circuit because of the coronavirus outbreak. Smith is riding at Churchill Downs on Friday and Saturday.

Warren’s Showtime, a fourtime stakes winner for owners Ben and Sally Warren, is one of two expected runners in the field for Lewis. Margot’s Boy, fifth in the Real Good Deal Stakes for California-bred 3-year-old sprinters on July 31, will start, Lewis said.

Both are by Clubhouse Ride, a stallion Lewis trained and still co-owns.

“That’s pretty amazing, two Cal-breds running in a race like that,” Lewis said.

The Del Mar Derby field is expected to include Pixelate, who has been second or third in five turf stakes on other racing circuits this year; Kiss Today Goodbye, who was third in the Shared Belief Stakes on the main track on Aug. 1; and K P All Systems Go, who was third in the Grade 3 La Jolla Handicap on turf Aug. 9.

Through Monday, Lewis had 997 career wins. He has one runner on Friday in Lucia’s Design in the seventh race. Reaching the milestone of 1,000 wins, possibly this weekend, is “way in the back of my mind,” he said.

“I’m more interested in doing the best I can,” Lewis said. “I think we probably should have won a few races we didn’t due to pilot error.”

Blanc out six weeks

Jockey Brice Blanc was released from a San Diego area hospital Tuesday after sustaining broken ribs in a one-horse spill in the eighth race Monday at Del Mar.

Blanc is expected to be sidelined for six weeks, according to his agent, George Bradvica.

Blanc was aboard Great Power, who appeared to clip heels with a rival on the turn of the turf race, causing the fall. Blanc was taken from the track on a stretcher. Great Power was vanned to trainer Simon Callaghan’s stable and did not sustain an injury, Callaghan said.

Blanc was held for observation in the hospital on Monday night. Through Monday, Blanc, 47, has won eight races from 106 mounts this year, and had three wins at the Del Mar summer meeting. Blanc won the Astra Stakes for fillies and mares on turf at Santa Anita in January on Ms Peintour.

Rispoli, Prat battle to wire

Del Mar plans to run 42 races from Friday through Labor Day in the closing days of the track’s summer meeting. It may take that long to determine a close race for leading rider.

Through Monday, Umberto Rispoli led the standings with 42 wins, one more than Flavien Prat, who won his third summer riding title at Del Mar last year. Rispoli, who relocated from Hong Kong last December, is riding at Del Mar for the first time this summer.

Rispoli had three wins Monday to take the lead, doing so on his 32nd birthday.

– Steve Anderson

Diagnostic program paying off

A cooperative effort between Del Mar and Santa Anita to use high-level diagnostic equipment based at Santa Anita has been credited by veterinarians with catching potential small problems before they become big ones during a summer season in which Del Mar has continued its strong safety record of recent years.

Del Mar has subsidized the transportation to Santa Anita of horses to use three highly advanced diagnostic services – nuclear scintigraphy, position emission tomography (PET), and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) – provided by the Southern California Equine Foundation.

“This summer it has been particularly successful in getting horses efficiently back and forth and this service often is the deal-maker in obtaining a definitive diagnosis,” said Dr. Joe Dowd, a local racetrack veterinarian who is also the president of the SCEF.

He said Josh Rubinstein, president and chief operating officer of Del Mar, and Tom Robbins, the track’s executive vice president of racing and industry relations, were instrumental in setting everything up this summer.

“Sometimes seemingly small contributions can have a big impact,” Dowd said. “The shuttling services Del Mar has provided solved the issue of convenient access to advanced diagnostic imaging.”

– Jay Privman