Racing! Del Mar gets ready for its biggest fall meeting ever

Hello, my name is John Cherwa, welcome back to our horse racing newsletter. I’m on the ground at Del Mar.

One of the crazy things about covering big events such as the Breeders’ Cup is if you are a lazy journalist you get fed enough information that you can fake your way through it without doing much work.

That’s going to be me today, but only today. By the time I made the 14-hour drive from Pasadena to here it was too late. OK, so I exaggerate, only three hours, just felt like 14.

Del Mar opens today with a nine-race card, nothing compared with what’s coming Friday and Saturday. The highlight is the seventh race (about 3:30 p.m.), the $75,000 Let It Ride Stakes for 3-year- olds going a mile on the turf. In some future newsletter we’ll do a deconstruct of the movie Let It Ride, one of the all-time greats.

Back to Del Mar and its $75,000 feature. Do you know what they call a $75,000 race in New York? A dark day. OK, cheap shot.

View from the experts

Remember, if you watch one video today about horse racing, it should be our preview of the Breeders’ Cup, starring Jeff Siegel and Aaron Vercruysse of xbtv. Today’s is your preview of the four races on Friday. (watch here.) And if you want to catch up on some others, here’s one on horses that are under the radar (watch here). And, there’s also one on European horses (watch here), or discussing the pre-entries to the Classic and Turf (watch here), and the popular Juvenile and Juvenile Fillies (watch here) races.

Now, thanks to the wonderful notes team at the Breeders’ Cup, here are some bits and pieces of information.

Classic Notes

Here’s the post positions for Saturday’s big race:

Horse, trainer, odds

1. Arrogate, Bob Baffert, Mike Smith, 2-1

2. War Decree, Aidan O'Brien, Seamie Heffernan, 30-1

3. Win the Space, George Papaprodromou, Joe Talamo, 30-1

4. War Story, Jorge Navarro, Jose Ortiz, 30-1

5. Gun Runner, Steve Asmussen, Florent Geroux, 9-5

6. Mubtaahij (IRE), Bob Baffert, Drayden Van Dyke, 12-1

7. Churchill (IRE), Aidan O'Brien, Ryan Moore, 15-1

8. West Coast, Bob Baffert, Javier Castellano, 6-1

9. Gunnevera, Antonio Sano, Edgard Zayas, 30-1

10. Pavel, Doug O'Neill, Mario Gutierrez, 20-1

11. Collected, Bob Baffert, Martin Garcia, 6-1

-- Bob Baffert can’t be too happy with the most inside and outside posts. He shipped 16 horses, 11 of which should run in the Breeders’ Cup races, from Santa Anita to Del Mar at 2 a.m. Tuesday morning. They just arrived. Kidding, took a little over two hours.

-- Churchill, the Irish horse — although shouldn’t he be a British horse? — arrived on Monday and is scheduled to get through quarantine on Thursday.

-- Gunnevera, the only horse in the Classic that ran in a Triple Crown race, galloped 1½ miles Tuesday. The exercise rider said he likes the track. “My horse is in 100% condition, very fresh,” said trainer Antonio Sano.

-- Gun Runner had his final breeze on Monday of 49 2/5 for four furlongs. On Tuesday, he just walked.

-- Pavel, who has run only four races, is ready according to Leandro Moro, Doug O’Neill’s chief assistant. “He’s been training well here at Del Mar just as he did this summer before going east to run in some stakes races,” Moro said.

Distaff notes

Here’s the post positions for Friday’s big race:

Horse, trainer, jockey, odds

1. Champagne Room, Peter Eurton, Mario Gutierrez, 15-1

2. Stellar Wind, John Sadler, Victor Espinoza, 5-2

3. Mopotism, Doug O'Neill, Frankie Dettori, 30-1

4. Abel Tasman, Bob Baffert, Mike Smith, 4-1

5. Elate, Bill Mott, Jose Ortiz, 3-1

6. Forever Unbridled, Dallas Stewart, John Velazquez, 4-1

7. Paradise Woods, Richard Mandella, Flavien Prat, 9-2

8. Romantic Vision, Rusty Arnold, Brian Hernandez Jr., 15-1

-- Champaign Room jogged on Tuesday with exercise rider Eddie India. Trainer Peter Eurton was still lamenting his horse drawing the one. “It is what it is,” Eurton said. “[From the one] she can get aggressive when she feels the pressure around her. I would love to switch with Paradise Woods [in the seven] and be able to control things.”

-- Paradise Woods galloped once around the track on Tuesday. “She likes to be on the lead but she can also come from a bit off the pace so we’ll just have to wait and see how it all shakes out,” said trainer Richard Mandella.

-- Stellar Wind, the morning-line favorite, galloped 1¼ on Tuesday. “Going early has been her routine here for three years so I didn’t want to change it, trainer John Sadler said. “We gave her a nice gallop, leaning toward being a strong gallop toward the end.”

Juvenile notes

Here’s the post positions for Saturday’s race that wil establish the early favorite to win the Kentucky Derby:

Horse, trainer, jockey, odds

1. U S Navy Flag, Aidan O'Brien, Ryan Moore, 8-1

2. Solomini, Bob Baffert, Flavien Prat, 6-1

3. Firenze Fire, Jason Servis, Irad Ortiz Jr., 6-1

4. Givemeaminit, Dallas Stewart, Javier Castellano, 20-1

5. Free Drop Billy, Dale Romans, Robby Albarado, 5-1

6. Good Magic, Chad Brown, Jose Ortiz, 8-1

7. The Tabulator, Larry Rivelli, Jose Valdivia Jr., 20-1

8. Bahamian, Simon Callaghan, Mario Gutierrez, 30-1

9. Hazit, Todd Pletcher, John Velazquez, 20-1

10. Golden Dragon, Mikhail Yanakov, Evin Roman, 30-1

11. Bolt d'Oro, Mick Ruis, Corey Nakatani, 9-5

12. Hollywood Star, Dale Romans, Joel Rosario, 15-1

-- It was travel day for favored Bolt d’Oro as he left the barn at 3 a.m. and came down to Del Mar. “He relaxed in the stall here for a couple hours and then went to the track,” owner and trainer Mick Ruis said. “Nothing bothers him and he’s just a 2-year-old. It’s pretty cool.”

-- Free Drop Billy is the better of two 2-year-olds that trainer Dale Romans has brought to Del Mar. “He’s a push button horse,” Romans said. “He’s one of the horses that you know you have to deal with the least. He’s sound. He’s smart. He always does everything right.”

Jeff Nahill’s DM spot play

NINTH RACE: No. 1 Channel Crossing (8-1)

The circuit moves to Del Mar and the turf course rails will be at 30 feet the first two days of the meet waiting for Friday and Saturday's Breeders' Cup races. When the rails are that far out speed seems to do well. Channel Crossing has that and comes out of a key Santa Anita maiden race where four of the first five to run back have won. Good stat. However, No. 4 Martin Riggs and No. 8 Arch Anthem also come out of that race. I recommend an exacta box of 1-4-8. I also recommend an exacta of 10 with 1-4-8. No. 10 Kazan gets the great Frankie Dettori to ride and I might have picked on top but that post is tough in this race. But just in case, I recommend the aforementioned exacta as a saver.

Sunday’s result: Midnight Swinger finished second in Sunday's third race

Jeff Nahill is a quality editor for the San Diego Union-Tribune. He can be reached at jeff.nahill@sduniontribune.com. For other selections go to his blog: fromthewinnerscircle.me

Final thought

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Any thoughts, drop me an email at john.cherwa@latimes.com or feed my ego by following me on Twitter @jcherwa.

Now, the star of the show, Wednesday’s entries.