DEL MAR – Salamis won the Grade 1 Hollywood Derby Saturday afternoon, giving visiting trainer Chad Brown two more Del Mar stakes wins, while 68-to-1 longshot Call Sign Seven produced one of the biggest surprises of the year in California by charging along the rail down the stretch to win the Grade 2 Seabiscuit Stakes.
The Derby and Seabiscuit are part of Del Mar’s annual Turf Festival that concludes Sunday with four stakes — led by the $300,000 Grade 1 Matriarch — to end the seaside oval’s 12th fall meeting. An added bonus Sunday: due to Call Sign Seven’s win in the fifth, the early Pick 5 Saturday produced no winning ticket for a $329,733 carryover to Sunday – mandating a guaranteed payout.
An almost annual winner during the Turf Festival, Brown shipped in Salamis and Jimmy Durante Stakes champion Just Aloof from the east. He will have morning-line second-favorite Segesta in Sunday’s Matriarch.
Salamis and jockey Umberto Rispoli caught Tom’s Magic (Antonio Fresu) just before the finish to give Brown his fifth Hollywood Derby win in 12 years by a neck. Favorite Test Score (Juan Hernandez) was another neck back in third in the 1 1/8-mile turf race for 3-year-olds.
Salamis, a son of Speightstown, paid $8.20 after rallying from fifth at the top of the stretch.
“I had a nice chat with Chad this morning,” said Rispoli. “He was pretty straightforward, which was to pump Salamis out of the gate. I was a little bit worried with the slow pace, but Chad’s horses always have a nice turn of foot.”
“This horse is really talented, and I knew he would be there,” said Brown’s assistant Jose Hernandez. “He deserved to win.”
So did favorite Just Aloof ($8.00) in the Durante. Never farther back than second in the mile run for 2-year-old fillies, Just Aloof pulled away in the stretch under Hector Berrios to win by 2 ½ lengths over Latte Luv.
“She’s been getting over the track really well since shipping in on Tuesday,” Hernandez said of Just Aloof. “I think it set up really well for her.”
Said Berrios: “The moment I went to the lead, she followed. She is very class. She finished very strong.”
Ridden by Ricardo Gonzalez, Call Sign Seven ran seventh in the field of eight older horses from the start of the 1 1/16-mile turf test until midway through the stretch when the 4-year-old, who is also a son of Speightstown, found an opening from heavy traffic along the rail.
“Around the middle of the turn, it looked like he was getting shuffled back,” said Call Sign Seven trainer Michael McCarthy. “But it always looked like he was traveling comfortably. Crossing the chute, he was able to find some room. I’m certainly glad he did. I wasn’t real happy sitting behind a wall of horses. All the credit goes to the horse and rider.”
Call Sign Seven was racing for the first time since finishing seventh in an allowance race at Santa Anita last March 2.
“He had some time off, and I started working him in the mornings,” said Gonzalez. “Michael entered him and said ‘let’s take a shot.’ Now look at him.”
Call Sign Seven ($139.00) finished a half-length ahead of Astronomer with favorite El Potente fading from the lead to third deep in the stretch.
Sunday finale
Brown is seeking his seventh Matriarch win in nine years Sunday in the one-mile turf test for older fillies and mares. And Flavien Prat is flying overnight from Aqueduct in New York to ride the 4-year-old daughter of Ghostzapper, who is coming off back-to-back runner-up finishes in Grade 3 stakes.
But the morning-line favorite at 3-1 is the Richard Baltas-trained Ag Bullet (John Velazquez), who finished second in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint four weeks ago. The last time the 5-year-old daughter of Twirling Candy went a mile was when she finished third in the 2024 Matriarch.
“She’s ready,” said Baltas. “She came out of the Breeders’ Cup good and she ran strong that day.”
Other last-day stakes:
Cecil B. DeMille (Race 3, $100,000, Grade 3, 1-mile turf, seven 2-year-olds): Hey Nay Nay (Prat) is the 7-5, morning-line favorite in his first start since running 10th in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf here on Oct. 31. On Sept. 7, the John Sadler-trained son of No Nay Never won the Grade 3 Del Mar Juvenile Turf.
Stormy Liberal (Race 5, $100,000, 5 furlongs turf, 10 older horses): Unconquerable Keen (Umberto Rispoli) goes for a third straight victory in this race as the narrow, 7-2, morning-line favorite. The 6-year-old gelding hasn’t run since finishing third in the Grade 2 Turf Sprint on Kentucky Derby Day at Churchill Downs. This is the fourth running of the Stormy Liberal and horses trained by Phil D’Amato have won the first three.
Bayakoa (Race 8, $100,000, Grade 3, 1-mile dirt, 8 older fillies and mares): Hope Road (Juan Hernandez) is the 3-5, morning-line favorite in this non-Turf Festival race. The 4-year-old daughter of Quality Road last ran third in the Breeders’ Cup Fillies and Mares Sprint here on Nov. 1.
Notable
There were a pair of notable firsts at Del Mar Friday. Former Richard Mandella assistant Angel Vega scored his first career win with Sexy Blue ($4.80) in the fourth. And jockey Cesar Belmont scored his first win in the U.S. on just his second ride in the country with Sendit Mo ($7.60) in the sixth.
• The six-horse sixth race Friday resulted in a 1-2-3-4-5-6 finish order. The numerical odds of that happening are 719-1, and that assumes that all six horses were equally likely to win.