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Del Mar Futurity to be contested by 13 Juvenile Males!
The 60 th running of the Grade I, $250,000 Del Mar Futurity will be contested by a field of 13 juvenile males. The Del Mar Futurity field will be led by Best Pal Stakes winner Salute the Sarge. It will be run at 7 furlongs on Wednesday, September 5, and will serve as the highlight of the Del Mar 2007 season's closing day.
This will be the largest Del Mar Futurity field since 1967 when Baffle won in a 13-horse field.
Salute the Sarge, who preceded his Best Pal win with a victory in the Hollywood Juvenile Championship, will carry high weight of 123 pounds and gets Hall of Fame rider Kent Desormeaux in the irons.
On the other hand, Desormeaux, who returns from his New York base at Saratoga, where he is second-leading rider to Cornelio Velasquez through Saturday, 43-39, will be seeking his third win in Del Mar's top race for colts and geldings. He won with the Ron McAnally-trained Future Quest in 1995 and Worldly Manner for Bob Baffert in 1998.
McAnally, who also saddled winner On Target in 1994, will send out E Z's Gentleman in search of his third Del Mar Futurity score. Multiple Eclipse riding champion John Velazquez comes from Saratoga to ride for Hall of Famer McAnally.
Another Hall of Fame conditioner at the seashore, Richard Mandella, will take two shots Wednesday to register his third Del Mar Futurity win in the past five years. He's hopeful that Kanan Dume or Dixie Chatter can repeat the success of 2003 winner Siphonizer or 2006 champ Horse Greeley. Kanan Dume drew the rail and Dixie Chatter drew the outside post.
Meet- leading trainer Doug O'Neill will tighten the girth on a pair of hopefuls, Good Man Dan and Overextended, who enters the race as one of only two non-winners in the field, though he has started three times.
Georgie Boy, winner of Del Mar's Graduation Stakes and runner-up to Salute the Sarge in the Best Pal for trainer Kathy Walsh, could draw a lot of support for his resume that shows a win, two seconds and a third in four lifetime starts. Also coming out of the Best Pal is third-place finisher Sky Cape for trainer Kristin Mulhall. A victory by either Georgie Boy or Sky Cape would make Walsh or Mulhall the first female trainer to win the Futurity.
Leonides, trained by Vladimir Cerin, finished second to Salute the Sarge in the Hollywood Juvenile Championship and was primed to take on that colt in the Best Pal, but was scratched after spiking a fever. He'll get his chance for a second shot Wednesday.
Drill Down, an impressive maiden winner at Del Mar, will represent trainer Mike Machowsky in the Futurity; trainer Peter Miller will saddle Whatever Whenever, who comes to the race from a victory in the Cavonnier Stakes at Santa Rosa; trainer Rafael Becerra will send out Drewthegentleman, whom he claimed for $80,000 August 3 at Del Mar, and trainer Jose DeLima will saddle the other non-winner, Ford Island, who finished third in a Del Mar maiden claiming race August 17. |
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The complete lineup of the Del Mar Futurity 2007, with weights and riders is as follows:
- Kanan Dume, 117, Victor Espinoza;
- Good Man Dan, 117, Tyler Baze;
- Overextended, 115, David Flores;
- Drill Down, 117, Michael Baze;
- Ford Island , 115, Joel Rosario;
- Salute the Sarge, 123, Kent Desormeaux;
- Leonides, 117, Joe Talamo;
- E Z's Gentleman, 117, John Velazquez;
- Whatever Whenever, 119, Corey Nakatani;
- Sky Cape , 117, Jose Valdivia, Jr.;
- Georgie Boy, 121, Garrett Gomez;
- Drewthegentleman, 115, Alex Solis;
- Dixie Chatter, 117, Richard Migliore.
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