JUST CALL GLATT MR. 1,000
Mark Glatt kicked off what figures to be an interesting final two weekends of Del Mar’s fall meeting Friday afternoon by scoring the 1,000th win of his training career.
Glatt, 37, reached the milestone when second-favorite Zestful ($6.40), with Edwin Maldonado aboard, went wire-to-wire to win the third race on the eight-race card.
Del Mar will have stakes for older horses today and Sunday and finish with seven turf stakes over the final four-day weekend starting on Thanksgiving — capped by the Grade I Hollywood Derby (Nov. 28) and the Grade I Matriarch Stakes (closing day, Nov. 29).
And there will be two interesting additions for the final four days.
Jockey Irad Ortiz Jr., who led the nation in earnings in 2018 and 2019, is f lying in from New York to ride Del Mar’s final weekend. The winner of the last two Eclipse Awards as the nation’s top jockey recently rode two winners in the Breeders’ Cup along with a second and a third — earning him a third straight Bill Shoemaker Award as the top jockey at the event.
His top mounts will be stakes entries f lown in from
the East Coast by trainer Chad Brown — starting with Orglandes in the Grade III Red Carpet Handicap for older fillies and mares on Thanksgiving.
Meanwhile, Glatt reached the 1,000-win milestone with his third win in 12 starts during the Bing Crosby Meeting.
“I did think it might be today with this horse,” Glatt said after Zestful won the $61,000 allowance by 21⁄
2 lengths. “I thought he had a good chance.”
Asked what 1,000 wins means, Glatt said: “It’s real important to me, a nice accomplishment. ... There have been a lot of ups and downs with it.”
The son of trainer Ron Glatt, Mark said: “I grew up with horses, I knew at an early age what I wanted to do. My father played a key role in my early years. You are only as good as your crew
and the people around you. And there’s always a new challenge as a daily occurrence.”
A native of Washington state, Glatt won his first race in his 11th start, on March 28, 1994, in the $25,000 Miss Yakima Handicap at Yakima Meadows. He is the first trainer to score his 1,000th career win at Del Mar since Peter Miller on Nov. 16, 2018.
Today’s feature
Defending champion Midcourt, with Victor Espinoza aboard, is the 4-5 morning-line favorite in today’s Grade III Native Diver Stakes, though trainer John Shirreffs told the Daily Racing Form he wasn’t sure if the 5-year-old gelding would run. Midcourt scored a wireto-wire victory in last year’s 11⁄ 8- mile race for older horses on the main track. During Del Mar’s summer meeting, Midcourt twice chased Maximum Security home — finishing second in the San Diego Handicap and third in the Pacific Classic.
Extra Hope, who f inished second in the 2019 Native Diver, is also entered in the 2020 renewal as one of two entrants in the fivehorse field trained by Richard Mandella. Extra Hope ( Juan Hernandez) is the second-favorite at 3-1 and Royal Ship ( Mike Smith) the third choice at 4-1. The Native Diver Stakes is the second race on today’s ninerace program.
Notable
Del Mar summer stakes winners Galilean and El Tigre Terrible lead the 10 horses entered in Sunday’s $100,000 Cary Grant Stakes, a 7-furlong sprint for older California-bred horses.
• Jockey Geovanni Franco rode Cover Version ($6.40) to victory in the fourth race Friday. It was Franco’s first win in 87 starts this year at Del Mar and only his second win in his last 110 starts.
• Flavien Prat and Umberto Rispoli each won two races Friday to move into a tie with Mike Smith for second in the jockey standings. They have half the total of 14 wins by leader who scored one win Friday.