Nakatani and Flores Deliver at Del Mar

DEL MAR —  Neither David Flores nor Corey Nakatani had ridden their horses before, but shucks, this is Del Mar and a lot stranger things can happen.

Flores, given the mount on Wild Babe because three other jockeys turned trainer Jerry Dutton down, survived a charge from the back of the pack to win the first division of Wednesday’s Oceanside Stakes as Del Mar launched its 65th season before a wall-to-wall crowd of 39,346, about 1,300 less than last year’s record turnout. Then Nakatani climbed aboard Blackdoun, trainer Julio Canani’s French import, for the win in the other half of the Oceanside.

Favorites fell in both races, War Academy running off the board to Wild Babe and Terroplane finishing second, 2 1/2 lengths behind Blackdoun.

Nakatani and the Oceanside go well together. He was 20 in 1991 when he won a division of the Oceanside with Stark South for the late John Russell. That was the first of five Oceanside wins for Nakatani, who has won 71 stakes here to rank seventh on the Del Mar stakes list.

“Flores rode a great race,” Dutton said of the veteran’s ride on Wild Babe, who had run the Oceanside distance of a mile on grass once in nine earlier starts and who had never run farther than 6 1/2 furlongs in the rest. “There was no speed in the race, so David just took [the lead] that way, and got his horse to run his race.”

Dutton, 76, has been coming to Del Mar for so many summers that he couldn’t readily recall his first season here. He might have been only 20, galloping horses before he got around to taking out a trainer’s license. Wild Babe, a son of Wild Again and Book Babe, an Alydeed mare, gave Dutton his third Del Mar stakes win and the first since 1998.

“It’s been so long since my last one that I still might have to win a few more, just to catch up,” Dutton said.

Wild Babe, who paid $18.60 to win, was fifth in his last start, a turf sprint at Hollywood Park in June. Dutton said he had thrown out that performance, because the horse had lost a shoe during the running. The race before that, going a mile, Wild Babe led all the way until the stretch, when Terroplane caught him.

In Wild Babe’s only previous stakes start, he finished 10th and last in the Best Pal at Del Mar last August. The colt, who won Wednesday by a neck over Semi Lost, didn’t surface again until March at Santa Anita.

“He was a nervous horse last year,” said Dutton, explaining Wild Babe’s sabbatical. “But I got a good feeling today when he was calm in the post parade.”

Said Flores: “When I made the lead and was able to slow it down on the backside, I loved it. I knew the rest of them were going to be in trouble.”

Blackdoun may be the start of a big opening week for Canani. He’s running a pair of horses -- Special Ring and Bayamo -- in Sunday’s $400,000 Eddie Read Handicap. Special Ring won the Read last year.

Blackdoun, a French-bred gray colt, was making his U.S. debut. He had run 11 times, over nine different courses, in France, and hadn’t started since a third-place finish at Longchamp on April 25. He paid $6 for $2 in winning for the fourth time.

“I’ve only had the horse for a couple of months,” Canani said, “and I’ve trained him lightly. I could tell through his form that he had class. I told Corey to ride the horse with confidence, but not to rush him because I hadn’t done too much with him.”

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One of the three Del Mar stewards, Ingrid Fermin, said that no hearing had been scheduled for jockey Pat Valenzuela, who has been suspended indefinitely in another blip on his calamitous career. Fermin said that a hearing might be held on July 29, which is the court-mandated deadline after Valenzuela was denied a stay of his suspension last week. At issue is whether Valenzuela, who says he shaves his whole body, has enough follicles to be tested for possible drug use. Valenzuela was the leading rider last year at Del Mar, en route to his sweeping the titles at all five major meets in Southern California.