As the last furlong of the 1 3/8 miles in the $303,000 Del Mar Handicap (G2T) loomed, late on the afternoon of Aug. 29, the leaders were crammed together like passengers in steerage. Mondego, Atomic Age, Test Score, and Atitlan all looked to be in with a chance, while Gold Phoenix, the heavy choice going for his fifth straight win in the race, probed the inside lanes, full of run.
Then, like a five-card hand of poker flopped for all to see, the final riot of a finish found Test Score prevailing by a neck over Atitlan, with Atomic Age half a length back in third, Gold Phoenix right beside him in fourth, and Mondego fifth, beaten just a length for all the money.
The victory by Test Score, a 4-year-old son of Lookin At Lucky, marked yet another in a long-running series of successful Del Mar invasions for a horse sent west by Graham Motion from the Fair Hill training center in Maryland. As usual, assistant Alice Clapham was on hand for the stable's third stakes win of the meet, while Juan Hernandez was able to erase the memory of his last collaboration with Test Score in the 2025 Hollywood Derby (G1T).
"That was a tough one," Hernandez said of that race, in which Test Score had more than enough trouble to make up the difference in losing by half a length. "He's a very nice colt who really deserves to win a race like this."
After his disappointing sixth in the Arlington Million Stakes (G1T) following a near miss in the Manhattan Stakes (G1T) at Saratoga Race Course, Test Score was pointed for Del Mar. And since his regular rider Manny Franco was committed to Leading Change in the Travers Stakes (G1) on the same afternoon, Motion did not hesitate to give Hernandez another chance.
"I always hate it when people take jockeys off horses when they get beaten like he did last year in the grade 1," Motion said from home, late Saturday night. "You're not always going to win, so it becomes part of the experience. And today he gave him a beautiful trip, really."
After breaking smartly on the backstretch for the quick run to the first of three turns, Hernandez settled Test Score behind the modest pace set by longshots Packs a Wahlop and Old Pal. Despite a modest pace—:48.26 for the first half and 1:13.31 for three-quarters—the field of 11 was well strung out, more in deference to the need to save ground on the crucial turns.
Rounding the final turn, the field began to compress, and Test Score appeared to be enjoying a perfect trip. Even so, it was Umberto Rispoli aboard Atitlan for Richard Mandella who was tasting the champagne. They had come from last, with an unbroken run, and had dead aim on Test Score, who began gradually edging away from the others.
"I thought I had it," a disappointed Rispoli said. "He was running strong. Really fast. And as soon as I got head and head and about to pass the other horse, he said, 'I'm done.' He did not want to pass. It was not the other horse coming back on. My horse put on the brakes."
As for Gold Phoenix, the 8-year-old Irish gelding could not be faulted for coming within a length of winning a fifth straight running of a historic race such as the Del Mar Handicap.
"I wished we'd have got a little cleaner trip, but that's grass racing," said Phil D'Amato, who also trains Atomic Age. "They really walked the dog early, and when that happens they'll all be charging late."
For a brief moment, inside the sixteenth pole, it appeared as if Hector Berrios might be able to pull off a miracle finish with Gold Phoenix.
"He took a chance to go up in there and it got a little tight," D'Amato said. "But he got through and battled to the end. There's no hanging his head in defeat, that's for sure."
The final time for the 1 3/8-mile race was 2:14.76, but what really mattered to Motion was that Test Score proved he could win a major race beyond 1 1/8 miles. His most important victory came earlier this year in the Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational Stakes (G1T) at Gulfstream Park.
"I wasn't sure how far he would go," Motion said. "But he certainly handled the distance today against good horses. He's an amazing horse, a real warrior. I feel very lucky to have him. He's turned out to be one of the best grass horses I've had."
The list would include champion Main Sequence and Better Talk Now, both winners of the Breeders' Cup Turf (G1T). Test Score now might get a chance to join them, since the Del Mar Handicap trophy for Test Score's owners and breeders, John and Jerry Amerman, came with an automatic, fees-paid berth to the Breeders' Cup Turf Oct. 31 at Keeneland through the Breeders' Cup Challenge Series: Win and You're In.
Video: Del Mar H. Presented by The Japan Racing Association (G2T)
Iron Man Cal Wins Pat O'Brien
D'Amato and the Little Red Feather Racing partnership behind Gold Phoenix may have used up their good luck in the previous race when Iron Man Cal overcame the inconvenience of an emergency left front shoe replacement to take the $252,500 Pat O'Brien Stakes (G2), leading at every call of the 7 furlongs.
Until this summer, the 4-year-old son of Collected occupied a reliable place in the deep D'Amato turf lineup. Then he finished a respectable third to Journalism in the San Diego Handicap (G2), and his new career path was born.
Under meet leader Joel Rosario, Iron Man Cal held off the late close of Moonlight and Victor Espinoza to win by half a length. Big City Lights, the modest favorite, was another half-length back in third. The final time was 1:22.02 for the 7 furlongs on a fast main track; Iron Man Cal paid $18.40 to win.
D'Amato gave Del Mar's official horseshoe inspector Victor Tovar high marks for replacing the loose shoe under pressure. The situation kept the other nine runners cooling their heels in the saddling ring for at least 10 extra minutes.
"He did a great job," D'Amato said. "You like to see them get three nails in each side. He got only two, but they were in the right place."
"For want of a nail ... " begins the old saying, and in this case the happy ending for Little Red Feather Racing and Madaket Stables' Iron Man Cal—named for the durable Hall of Fame ballplayer Cal Ripken Jr.—meant that he is likely headed for the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile (G1), courtesy of the Breeders' Cup Challenge Series bonus attached to the Pat O'Brien.
