Del Mar Rolls Out the Green Carpet for Season Finale

The 2025 Del Mar summer meet comes to an end this weekend with a flurry of stakes for 2-year-olds and one venerable turf event that will never lose its historical luster. If Bob Baffert does not win the Del Mar Debutante Stakes (G1) Sept. 6 and the Del Mar Futurity (G1) Sept. 7, then what was the point of hurling all those high-priced babies at the opposition all summer long? Baffert has three of the seven in the Debutante and four of the six in the Futurity. Both races are at seven furlongs. Of considerably more competitive interest are the two races for young ones at a mile on the grass: the Del Mar Juvenile Fillies Turf Stakes Saturday and the Del Mar Juvenile Turf Stakes (G3T) Sunday. The entry box bulged with 28 named between the two races. In the spirit of fair play, Baffert has exactly one, the maiden colt Plutarch, whose dam, the 2015 champion 3-year-old filly Stellar Wind, knocked off Beholder in the 2016 Clement L. Hirsch Stakes (G1) at Del Mar and later was sold to Coolmore for $6 million. Plutarch races for Coolmore. It gives this reporter no pleasure to note that the purse for the Del Mar Juvenile Turf Stakes is $100,000, while on the same afternoon at Kentucky Downs, 10 2-year-olds were entered to run for 10 times that in the $1 million Juvenile Mile Stakes. There are no West Coast runners in the Kentucky Downs event, which suggests that local horsemen think shipping callow 2-year-olds 2,500 miles to gambol over a course designed by a mischievous god is not a good idea. And besides, money can buy only so much happiness. The Juvenile Turf is a graded race, however, which gives owners and trainers incentive to nail down some cred that might sway the selection committee when it comes time to shape the field for the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf (G1T), which will be run at Del Mar Oct. 31. The Del Mar race earned its rating thanks to the accomplishments of many of its 13 winners, including several who went on to win graded stakes or listed stakes, and even two—Mackinnon and Daddy D T—who hit the board in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf when the whole world was watching. It will be all eyes on Hey Nay Nay (IRE) from the John Sadler stable Sunday when the colt shoots for his third straight win in the Juvenile Turf. After a measured win at Santa Anita June 1 over the Calumet colt Brigante (entered in the Futurity), Hey Nay Nay hopped a flight to New Jersey in early August and put on a one-horse show in the Tyro Stakes at Monmouth Park, winning by seven. Both races were at five furlongs on firm turf. "He's athletic enough and naturally quick enough to sprint," said Monmouth announcer Matt Dinerman, who proclaimed Hey Nay Nay "clobbered" his opposition as the dark bay or brown colt hit the wire that day. "But with his athletic stride, it looks to me like distance will only be his friend." Dinerman, who is completing his second season at the Monmouth microphone, can be forgiven if he paid special attention to a visitor from the Sadler barn. He walked hots as a teen for Sadler at Del Mar, and was at the barn to greet Hey Nay Nay and stable foreman Cesar Aguilar, his old boss, when they arrived at the Oceanport, N.J., track. "Hey Nay Nay has a really classy demeanor, especially for a young horse," Dinerman noted. "Nothing seems to faze him." Already a proven traveler, Hey Nay Nay would have figured as a logical candidate for the Kentucky Downs cash grab. Sadler fielded the obvious question with a pragmatic spin. "I wanted to run here because this is where we want to be for the Breeders' Cup," Sadler said. "It would have meant flying again, which might have been pushing it. And you see what's going on back there with the weather alert. It made sense to run at home." (As of Friday afternoon, Kentucky Downs management was watching the skies, as a nasty weather front loomed on the horizon that could mean a postponement of programs.) Hey Nay Nay is a son of the Scat Daddy stallion No Nay Never, a lightning bolt of a racehorse whose half dozen appearances for Wesley Ward included high-profile wins in England, France, and Kentucky, and a heartbreak second in the 2014 Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint (G1T) at Keeneland. Hey Nay Nay's dam, Travel, is a half sister to Eight Belles, the tip of a female family that traces directly to 1967 champion older mare Straight Deal and the foundational broodmare La Troienne. No Nay Never stands at Coolmore Ireland, where Hey Nay Nay was foaled. He was sold at the 2024 Keeneland September Yearling Sale for $300,000, and races for the partnership of Hronis Racing and Craig Taylor's Iapetus Racing. "When you get a 2-year-old with what looks like a grass pedigree, your mind goes to being ready in the fall," Sadler said. "But he always showed himself to be kind of precocious, and has never really had a blip on the screen. He trained well for his first race and ran so well we put him on a plane for his second race. That got us well ahead of the calendar, so he's had three beautiful works since then on the Del Mar main track, setting him up for Sunday." Hector Berrios rode Hey Nay Nay in his first start, but his people left nothing to chance for the Tyro and hired Paco Lopez for what turned out to be a rocking chair ride. Berrios will be back in the saddle for the Juvenile Turf. "Even though he has plenty of speed, in his works he's shown the ability to shut off," Sadler added. "So however the race goes, I think he can put himself in a good spot. (Fourteen) 2-year-olds going a mile on the turf can get a little crazy. But if he gets a clear trip, I think we have the best horse." John C. Mabee The John C. Mabee Stakes (G2T), formerly the Ramona Handicap and for 26 years, 1984-2009, a grade 1 event, will be run for the 68th time Saturday. The summer's most romantic race for fillies and mares began on the dirt then was moved to the grass in 1970. Either way, its impact on game and the breed has been impressive. Champion and Hall of Famer Flawlessly won the Mabee three times for Harbor View Farm. Two-time winners include Street Dancer, the granddam of major stakes winners Fleetstreet Dancer and River Special; Desert Trial, dam of champion and Hall of Famer Desert Vixen; Queen to Conquer, a Charlie Whittingham powerhouse of the early 1980s; and Vasilika, a dreamboat trained by Jerry Hollendorfer who came within a neck of winning the 2019 Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf (G1T). One of nine will follow in their footsteps Saturday, and form would seem to favor one of the four runners from the Phil D'Amato stable, led by defending race winner Hang the Moon. The daughter of Uncle Mo, owned by CJ Thoroughbreds, had her comeback race in the Yellow Ribbon Handicap (G2T) last month and appears primed. But do not act surprised if the Mabee comes down to either the Graham Motion invader Gimme a Nother (SAF), who just missed in the Canadian Stakes (G2T) at Woodbine, or the recent Osunitas Stakes winner Medoro from the Pete Eurton barn, who does not know how to run a bad race.