San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
JUST ENOUGH FOR VICTORY
Badilla ships mare from No. California to take Kathryn Crosby
The 5-year-old mare Never Be Enough has some miles under her.
After competing in 15 races in Great Britain last year and two more in January, Never Be Enough was shipped to the United States earlier this year.
And on Tuesday, she took an eight-hour van ride from Golden Gate Fields to be on hand Saturday for the opening day of Del Mar’s fall meet. She’s going to make the return trip to the Alameda County track Tuesday morning — as a winner.
Rallying under jockey Tiago Pereira, Never Be Enough ($14.80) charged from fifth to first in the stretch of the Kathryn Crosby Stakes to win the $75,000, 1-mile turf race for older fillies and mares by a length over Colonial Creed in the seven-horse field.
Saturday’s win followed two straight wins at Golden Gate for Never Be Enough, who has four wins in six starts since her U.S. debut in May. She finished fourth in her only previous Del Mar start July 25.
“This mare has a turn of foot and she’s a real runner,” said trainer Manuel Badilla via telephone from Golden Gate.
“Back in Europe, she ran against boys in the hurdles and on the flat. Talk about an iron horse.”
Never Be Enough has raced 23 times over the past 22 months on two continents.
Pereira had never been aboard Never Be Enough and went to the post for the feature without talking to Badilla. Patty Sterling, Pereira’s agent, spoke to the trainer Saturday morning.
“Badilla told her that Never Be Enough has lots of speed and he could go to the front,” said Pereira. “But if you go to the front, she’s not going to finish ... take a hold of her, get her to relax, then get them in the straight.
“That’s just what I did and when I asked the horse in the lane, she had a great kick.”
Meanwhile, 55-year-old Mike Smith won the final two races to join Juan Hernandez and apprentice Alexis Centeno as one of three jockeys with two wins on the first day of the 15-day meeting.
Smith, who is the all-time Breeders’ Cup leader in wins (26) and purse earnings ($36.6 million), announced Friday he will be spending Breeders’ Cup weekend at Del Mar and not at Keeneland in Kentucky.
“It’s kind of depressing,” Smith told a Del Mar official. “I don’t have any (Breeders’ Cup) mounts so I’m sitting this one out.”
This will mark only the fourth time in the past 31 years that Smith has missed the Breeders’ Cup.
“I’m going to ride as much as I can and maybe pick up some business when the other guys are back there,” said Smith.
“Del Mar is such a short meeting. It’s important to get off to a good start.”
He did.
Notable
Jockey J.C. Diaz Jr., 20, tested positive for COVID-19 earlier this week and began self-isolation Friday at his Los Angeles home. If Diaz remains asymptomatic, he could return to ride Nov. 13.
Margot’s Boy (3-1 with Pereira up) and Heywoods Beach (7-2 with Umberto Rispoli) are the morning-line favorites for today’s feature, the $75,000 Let It Ride Stakes for 3-year-olds at a mile on the turf. Margot’s Boy was second in the Del Mar Derby on Sept. 6.
Del Mar’s opening-day handle of $9,603,952 was 12 percent higher than the opening day of the 2019 Bing Crosby meeting ($8,559,757).