Del Mar is stretching its best fall racing over two weekends, which is a good thing. After a season replete with gluttonous Super Saturdays during which stables are emptied of top horses in search of headline handles, such a schedule is a welcome relief. The long-winded lads going a mile and a half in the Nov. 25 Hollywood Turf Cup Stakes (G2T) deserved their turn in the spotlight, as do the middle-distance grass troops in the Seabiscuit Handicap (G2T) on Saturday and the hard-knocking dirt horses in the Native Diver Stakes (G3) on Sunday.
Races run this time of year rarely have championship implications, especially out West. Before the Maker's Mark Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf (G1T) was a reality, the Matriarch Stakes (G1T) at Hollywood Park was a strong indicator of the Eclipse Award for the division. And in a toss-up season for 2-year-old males, the CashCall/Hollywood Futurity (G1) would sometimes tip the scales.
Now the Matriarch anchors Del Mar's final weekend on Dec. 4, ripe once again for plunder by East Coast stables, while the now-Los Alamitos Futurity (G2), set for Dec. 17 at its namesake Los Alamitos Race Course, is run pretty much for the benefit of Bob Baffert clients. The barn has won seven of the eight runnings at its new home.
That is why the $250,000 Seabiscuit Handicap, at a mile and one-sixteenth, is so intriguing. Not only has it assembled the best middle-distance turf field in California this year, there is also a chance that a victory by topweighted Santin would put him in the thick of the conversation for Outstanding Male Turf Horse of 2022.
Those of the opinion that Modern Games has the title sewn shut might not be wrong. The 3-year-old Godolphin colt won a French classic in his first start of the season, then later added the Ricoh Woodbine Mile Stakes (G1T) in Canada and the FanDuel Breeders' Cup Mile Presented by PDJF (G1T) at Keeneland. He also finished a close second to Cartier Horse of the Year Baaeed in the Qatar Sussex Stakes (G1), which is as close to winning as it gets.
Santin has carried the Godolphin colors through a 2022 campaign for Brendan Walsh that has included grade 1 wins in the Old Forester Bourbon Turf Classic Stakes (G1T) and the Arlington Million (G1T), both run at Churchill Downs. The son of Distorted Humor is no stranger to Del Mar, where he just missed catching Beyond Brilliant last fall in the Hollywood Derby (G1T).
Beyond Brilliant will be tough again in the Seabiscuit, and so will Smooth Like Strait , who returns to the scene of his near miss in the 2021 Breeders' Cup Mile run at Del Mar. His 2022 campaign has been a series of close calls and setbacks, culminating in a uncharacteristic ninth-place finish behind Modern Games in the Mile Nov. 5.
"He ran like a horse who was too fresh, too aggressive," said his trainer, Michael McCarthy. "He hadn't seen the paddock for a race since August, and the Breeders' Cup atmosphere couldn't have helped. I'm drawing a line through that race, because his form has been so consistent. Unfortunately."
McCarthy said that last part with a hollow laugh. Beginning with his narrow loss to Domestic Spending in the 2020 Hollywood Derby, Smooth Like Strait hit the board in 11 straight races rated grade 1 or 2—with two wins and seven seconds—before fading at Keeneland.
In that August race he was second to Santin in the Arlington Million. After that, Smooth Like Strait cut his knee in a barn scrape and missed the Coolmore Turf Mile Stakes (G1T) on a day that Santin failed to fire.
"He's come back to work well since the Breeders' Cup, and we know he likes this course," McCarthy added. "He's a magnificent-looking horse who does nothing but go out there and lay it down every time. I have no reason to think he won't run his race."
And, as a reminder, Smooth Like Strait carries with him the fortunes of U.S. combatants who have been helped through hard times, both emotional and medical, through the Special Operations Care Fund. Owner Michael Cannon, a benefactor of the Fund, welcomes veterans undergoing treatment for PTSD and brain trauma, into his Del Mar home, while earmarking 50% of Smooth Like Strait's earnings of nearly $1.8 million to the cause.
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As Thanksgiving traditions go, my annual recounting of "Turkey Remains and How to Inter Them With Numerous Scarce Recipes" by F. Scott Fitzgerald is beginning to lose its appeal. For years I tried reciting the text following the conclusion of Thanksgiving football games involving the Lions, Bears, or Bills (oh my), but my audience soon was dozing, slackmouthed, their forks dangling in the remnants of mince and pumpkin pie.
"Turkey Remnants..." can be found in "The Crack Up," a collection of Fitzgerald essays that includes a clinical recounting of his mental breakdown and slow road to recovery. It didn't help that he drank like a fish, as tipped in two of his leftover recipes, "Turkey Cocktail" and "Turkey with Whiskey":
"This recipe is for a party of four. Obtain a gallon of whiskey, and allow it to age for several hours. Then serve, allowing one quarter for each guest. The next day the turkey should be added, little by little, constantly stirring and baking."
Fitzgerald never wrote about horse racing. He left that world to guys like his pal, Ernest Hemingway, and later John Steinbeck and William Faulkner. But don't tell that to the Fitzgerald aficionados among the owners and breeders of racehorses who return time after time to the world of the writer when naming their Thoroughbreds.
Last Tycoon, named for Fitzgerald's unfinished novel, won the 1986 Breeders' Cup Mile. Monroe Star, a foal of 1981 named for the studio boss in "The Last Tycoon," sadly won nothing. There have been fillies named Zelda Fitzgerald, the author's wife, and Daisy Buchanan, Fitzgerald's most famous heroine, along with a whole herd of colts named in one way or another for the mysterious hero of his most famous book, "The Great Gatsby."
The Great Gatsby was an iconic American name drawn out of a hat by Coolmore for one of its crop of Sadler's Wells colts in 2000. He went on to nearly win the 2003 Vodafone Epsom Derby (G1) when he was caught in the final yards by Kris Kin. Another runner named The Great Gatsby was a useful handicapper in Australia, and still another was a well-regarded show-jumper in Europe.
The best horse named Jay Gatsby was graded stakes-placed allowance winner whose close blood ties to War Front gave him a stud career in Louisiana. And of the numerous Thoroughbreds named simply Gatsby, there is a homebred 4-year-old gelding having a good season in Florida for Alan Cohen's Arindel Farm, with a minor stakes win and more than $345,000 in career earnings.
Best of all, there was The Grey Gatsby, whose pedigree traced to a mare named Starlight Dreams, a fitting connection to a character who spent nights at the end of his dock staring at a green light while pining for lost love. The Grey Gatsby carried his sly name to earnings of nearly $4.3 million and victories in the Prix du Jockey-Club (G1) and the QIPCO Irish Champion Stakes (G1).
