DEL MAR LEADERS
(Through Sunday)
Jockeys / Wins
Mirco Demuro / 8
Umberto Rispoli / 7
Hector Berrios / 6
Antonio Fresu / 6
Edwin Maldonado / 4
Juan Hernandez / 4
Trainers / Wins
John Sadler / 5
George Papaprodromou / 5
Doug O’Neill / 5
Steve Miyadi / 3
Jeff Mullins / 3
(Six tied) / 2
UPCOMING STAKES
DEL MAR
Sunday
• $100,000 Desi Arnaz Stakes, 2-year-old fillies, 7 furlongs
LOS ALAMITOS
Saturday
• $60,000, Grade II Las Damas Handicap, quarter-horse fillies and mares, 3-year-olds and up, 400 yards
Sunday
• $20,000 JZ Wayne Griffin Directors Trials, 3 and up, 400 yards
DOWN THE STRETCH
• With rain odds-on, Del Mar has canceled Saturday’s racing and moved Friday’s first post from 12:30 p.m. to noon. The Desi Arnaz Stakes for 2-year-old fillies switches from Saturday to an all-main-track card Sunday, and the Bob Hope Stakes for 2-year-olds goes from Sunday to Friday, Nov. 21. It’s Del Mar’s first rainout since Aug. 20, 2023, and the first for a Southern California thoroughbred program since Santa Anita called off racing March 30 and 31, 2024. Los Alamitos hadn’t announced, as of Thursday afternoon, if its Saturday and Sunday night quarter-horse and thoroughbred races are affected. Tracks used to routinely run in the mud, but cancellations and postponements are common since a spike in fatal injuries to horses at Santa Anita in early 2019 coincided with racing through an unusually rainy winter.
• In the 7-furlong Desi Arnaz Stakes, Bob Baffert-trained Himika (Juan Hernandez riding) faces a rematch with John Sadler’s Revera (Antonio Fresu) and Victor Garcia’s Stuffy Mist (Tyler Baze), second and third in the Anoakia Stakes at Santa Anita. Himika, a daughter of Curlin, has won 3 of 5 starts, but she faded in two tries beyond 6 furlongs.
• An upset trend in Los Alamitos’ major quarter-horse races continued when Norco held on in last Sunday’s $926,200, Grade I Super Derby and paid $116.20, the highest win price at the Orange Country track’s night meet in 2025. Norco, ridden by Gabriel Lara for trainer Scott Willoughby and owner Ed Allred, was the sixth non-favorite to win in seven Grade I races at Los Al since March.
• Post-Breeders’ Cup retirements include 4-year-old Mystik Dan, the 2024 Kentucky Derby winner who was ordered scratched by veterinarians from the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile, and the 4-year-old filly Kopion, the best female sprinter in the country earlier in 2025 and fifth-place finisher against males in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint.
• Jockey Brian Hernandez Jr., regular rider for Mystik Dan and 2024 Horse of the Year Thorpedo Anna, rode an allowance-level winner Wednesday at Churchill Downs in his first day back in action since he suffered broken ribs, a collapsed lung and a lacerated liver in a Sept. 21 accident.
• Californians are cheering the announcement that the 12-year-old stallion Collected will be moved from Airdrie Stud in Midway, Ky., to Rancho San Miguel in San Luis Obispo for the 2026 breeding season, standing for $7,500 per live foal. The 2017 Pacific Classic winner and Breeders’ Cup Classic runner-up (to Gun Runner) for Baffert, Collected ranks 45th among North American sires with progeny earnings of $6.3 million in 2025, which would place him first among California-based stallions for 2026. “Collected has been an absolutely rock-solid Kentucky sire, and he now has the opportunity to stand as California’s premier stallion,” Airdrie Stud president Bret Jones in a release. “His California training roots and the great success his progeny have enjoyed in the state should guarantee his popularity.”
• Two horses were euthanized after being injured in training at Los Alamitos last weekend: The maiden 3-year-old gelding Tame the Tiger died Nov. 8, and the unraced 2-year-old filly Cayce in Gray died Nov. 9. Causes were categorized as musculoskeletal on the California Horse Racing Board website. Twenty-nine horses have died in racing and training, from musculoskeletal and other causes, at Los Alamitos, Del Mar and Santa Anita since the start of the California racing season Dec. 26, by unofficial count. That’s four fewer than in the same period last year, and in line with the average in recent years.
• Trainer Dale Romans, who has won a Preakness with Shackleford (2011) and three Breeders’ Cup events, is entering a race that could be seen as either a step up or down in class. Romans, 59, announced Wednesday he’s running for the U.S. Senate. A self-described independent Democrat, the Louisville, Ky., native will seek the Senate seat of retiring Mitch McConnell. He’s up against a track bias: Kentucky hasn’t elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1992.
— Kevin Modesti