On a holiday weekend when Del Mar hopes to introduce stars of the future, the track also will give fans one last chance this season to see an established major-race winner.
Thought Process, leader of the California fillies-and-mares turf division, is the best of 10 horses entered in the Grade II John C. Mabee Stakes on closing day Monday.
A 4-year-old trained by Phil D’Amato and ridden by Hector Berrios, Thought Process comes off convincing wins at Santa Anita in the Grade II Buena Vista Stakes at 1 mile and the Grade I Gamely under the same 1⅛-miles-on-turf conditions as the Mabee.
A victory by Thought Process on Monday would be her third in a row and sixth in her eight tries at the stakes level, amid career totals of seven wins and two third-place finishes in 10 starts. Her past two defeats came on the Del Mar grass in the 2025 Del Mar Oaks (she finished third to Velocity) and the 2024 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf (ninth to Lake Victoria). But she has won three times on the San Diego County course, breaking her maiden and dominating the Del Mar Juvenile Fillies Turf in 2024.
The Mabee could be competitive. The field includes Medoro, the 5-year-old mare who ran second behind Gimme a Nother as odds-on favorite in the 2025 Mabee and has been a consistent threat in graded stakes; Juan Hernandez rides for Peter Eurton. It also has 4-year-old Bojaca Blessing, 4-year-old Fibonaccis Ride and 5-year-old Baltic Fire, all stepping up in class after back-to-back victories.
The anticipated highlights of Labor Day weekend at Del Mar are Sunday’s Grade I Del Mar Futurity and Saturday’s Grade I Del Mar Debutante.
The Futurity, a 7-furlong race for 2-year-olds, has launched future national stars as recently as 2014 champion American Pharoah, who swept the 2015 Triple Crown, and 2015 winner Nyquist, who went on to glory in the 2016 Kentucky Derby. Those horses’ respective trainers have all five of this year’s runners, Bob Baffert with 4-5 morning-line favorite Hughes (Hernandez riding) and 7-5 Domus (Antonio Fresu), Doug O’Neill with Phone Booth (Umberto Rispoli), High Pronto (Kazushi Kimura) and Dang Son (Emisael Jaramillo).
The Debutante is an equivalent 7-furlong test for 2-year-old fillies. Baffert has the standout favorite in a 10-horse field, 8-5 Miss Monica (Hernandez), as well as the second choice on the line in 4-1 Holmby (Ricky Gonzalez). While recent runnings of the Futurity have been won mostly by short-priced favorites, lately the Debutante has been upset-prone.
The eight stakes in the final three days of the eight-week Del Mar summer meet include a pair of Grade III mile races for 2-year-olds being pointed at futures on turf. Saturday’s Del Mar Juvenile Turf is led by recent sharp maiden-breakers, 5-2 Shadow Nation (Joel Rosario riding for trainer Mike Puype) and Observed (Hernandez for Jonathan Thomas); the field numbers nine after Dang Son was scratched to run in the Futurity. Sunday’s Del Mar Juvenile Fillies turf has a solid favorite in 2-1 Vanta (Rispoli for Jeff Mulliins), coming off a well-earned debut win; that’s also a field of nine.
First post moves 30 minutes earlier, to 1:30 p.m., for the Saturday, Sunday and Monday cards.
DAYTONA DIAMOND STAYS UNBEATEN
Daytona Diamond was hesitant going into the starting gate and slow coming out of it. From then on, the 2-year-old filly’s talent took over in the Generous Portion Stakes for California-bred 2-year-old fillies on Friday at Del Mar.
The daughter of Tonalist ran her record to 2 for 2 by rallying steadily from last in a field of eight with Kimura aboard to outfinish Tashie and Fresu in the 6-furlong sprint worth $100,000. After going off at 10-1 in her debut victory a month ago, Daytona Diamond was odds-on in the Generous Portion and paid $3.
Daytona Diamond has balked behind the starting gate before both of her races. This time she also was slow to find her footing at the break.
“I thought we were in trouble,” trainer Carla Gaines, who has two stakes wins among six victories from 29 starts at the meet, said in a FanDuel TV interview. “I was very impressed.”
Daytona Diamond’s breeder and owner is Williamson Racing, overseen by Henry Williamson of Valley Center, in San Diego County.
ROSARIO, O’NEILL ADD WINS
Rosario and O’Neill maintained their big leads in the Del Mar jockey and trainer standings by winning one race each Friday.
Rosario, who rode Mo ’Em Down ($3.60) to victory in the allowance opener, stayed seven wins ahead of Hernandez, who took the third with Toaster (also $3.60). Rosario has 38 wins to Hernandez’s 31 and Fresu’s 28. Each man is entered in more than 20 races Saturday, Sunday and Monday.
O’Neill, who saddled Little Opal ($17.60) in the fourth, is 12 ahead of Peter Miller, who had Mo ’Em Down, and D’Amato, who blanked Friday. O’Neill has 26 wins to Miller’s and D’Amato’s 14 and has all but mathematically clinched the training title, because D’Amato has horses entered in 13 races and Miller 12 on the final three cards.
NOTABLE
• The stewards conducted an inquiry into bumping near the finish of the seventh race but voted unanimously to make no change in the order of finish, saying the horse at fault was Is That You Wing, who ended up fading to finish behind the horses he veered into.
• Upsets by Imnosurething ($17.60) in the fifth race and Maxify ($29.20) in the seventh set up the possibility of a pick-six carryover if any of four longshots had won the nightcap on Friday’s eight-race program. But they all finished far behind winner Special Club ($7.60). The pick-six paid $3,839.80.
• Nominations were posted for the first stakes race of the Los Alamitos thoroughbred meet that begins next Friday (Sept. 11). The inaugural running of the Becca Taylor Stakes, a 6-furlong sprint for 3-year-old fillies, could include as many as three Cal-breds trained by Steve Miyadi for breeder-owner Nick Alexander: Billie Holiday, Christa McAuliffe and Jacklyn Lucas. The most accomplished nominee is trainer John Sadler’s three-time stakes winner Mohaven.
Kevin Modesti reported from Los Angeles.