Tag: Phil D’Amato

Mackinnon heads a 14-colt field into Friday's Oceanside Stakes, Del Mar's traditional opening day feature. The seaside track opens its 31-day meet Friday. (Image: Benoit Photo)

Del Mar Opening Day Features Sold-Out Stands, Maxed-Out Fields

- 3 min read

Del Mar opens its 83rd season of racing Friday with boosted purses, the customary opening-day sellout crowd, and a sellout field of 14 for the meet’s first feature, the Oceanside Stakes. Lost to history and time is the Hollywood flavor the seaside track enjoyed from the moment Bing Crosby took […]

Neige Blanche won the first of three closing-day stakes races at Santa Anita Sunday. That was her third stakes victory of the Southern California track's 2021-22 Winter/Spring Meet schedule. (Image: Benoit Photo)

Record Performances Headline Santa Anita Park’s Winter/Spring Meet

- 3 min read

A training record for Phil D’Amato, a breakout riding season for Juan Hernandez, and a memorable first stakes win for the incomparable Flightline highlighted Santa Anita Park’s 2021-22 Winter/Spring Meet. The iconic Southern California track finished its 76-day meet Sunday with an 11-race card featuring three stakes races. One of […]

Santa Anita Park's training titlist Phil D'Amato sends Rijeka out in the Grade 3 San Juan Capistrano, Santa Anita's traditional closing day feature. Rijeka is one to watch in what could be a $3 million Rainbow Six. (Image: Benoit Photo)

Santa Anita Ends Long Meet with $3 Million Closing Day Rainbow Six

- 3 min read

Santa Anita Park sends its 2021-22 Winter/Spring Meet into the history books on Sunday with a Rainbow Six pool expected to hit $3 million. The 20-cent Single Ticket Rainbow Pick Six comes with a mandatory payout on the Southern California track’s closing day. With that closing day, mandatory payouts come […]

Beyond Brilliant's victory in the Grade 2 Hollywood Derby was one of the highlights of Del Mar's 2021 Bing Crosby Meet. (Image: Benoit Photo)

Del Mar Closes 2021 as Safest Major Racetrack in America

- 2 min read

Del Mar took in record handle of more than $943 million in 2021, but that buries the lead of what became the most important feature of the suburban San Diego track during the two-session, 2021 racing season. The track endured just one fatality in 426 races, encompassing 3,552 starters, making […]

Gregorian Chant (2) won three consecutive sprints earlier this season. He tackles Santa Anita Park's unique downhill turf course for the first time Friday in the Grade 2 Eddie D Stakes. (Image: Benoit Photo)

It’s All Downhill For These Sprinters in Santa Anita’s Eddie D Stakes

- 3 min read

Unlike some of its stakes brethren on Santa Anita Park’s opening day, the Grade 2 Eddie D Stakes doesn’t offer a Breeders’ Cup “Win and You’re In” spot. It does, however, offer something no other track in North America offers its contestants: a trip down the iconic Santa Anita Hillside […]

Flavien Prat rode Going Global to all four of her US stakes victories. That streak goes to the test Saturday in the Grade 2 San Clemente at Del Marl. (Image: Benoit Photo)

Going Global Does Just That, Brings Four-Race Win Streak to Del Mar

- 3 min read

Going Global began her racing career finishing fourth, 12th, and 13th in a trio of summer races in her native Ireland. There was nothing distinguishing her from the countless other 2-year-old fillies dotting Irish racetracks. This changed last November when Going Global broke her maiden in an Irish Handicap race […]