Frankly Speaking - Del Mar, August 17th

From Santa Rosa to Del Mar...and Thursday Racing

Santa Rosa at Del Mar!

Just when you think you’ve heard it all as a horseplayer…let me tell you this funny little story.

            As most of you know from my last column, Sunday, August 13, was our dog Odie’s celebration of life at Del Mar. It was a perfect day, a joyous day, and it was amazing seeing King Odie’s name in big lights—but it was also amazing seeing friends, family, and strangers all embrace our four-legged friend while enjoying all of the festivities.

That was mainly because Tricia, Terri’s sorority sister from Texas A&M, zhuzhed up the proceedings by making the coolest boutonniere you ever did see (see second photo above). Everyone in our party—including our main man Henry, who takes care of us in Section 28—walked around all day proudly displaying this sartorial tribute to Odie. Tricia’s husband, Aaron, let us know that Tricia spent three days getting the design just right—and he had the pictures of his wrecked dining room table to show it, and even the puncture wounds from trying to make sure the safety pins would hold! As you can imagine, this interesting conversation piece—such as a Milk-Bone boutonniere—was an attention-getter. We couldn’t walk two feet without someone stopping us, looking at the dressed-up Milk-Bone, and asking us what it was.

            “Well,” became my pat reply. “If you look at Race 9 in your program, you’ll see that it’s named after King Odie, who is no longer with us. This boutonniere is a tribute to King Odie.” You can imagine how many dog lovers there are at Del Mar, so this explanation was summarily greeted with a big smile, several accolades, and many exultations of “How cool is that!”

            We were able to spend a great day bouncing from our box to the paddock and back to the box again and again—and right before Race 7 was about to kick off, the last member of our party, Michele (sandwiched between me and Terri in the group photo above), showed up to celebrate with us. She sat down in the box just as the race was about to go off. We all got up and started cheering as the horses whizzed by the sixteenth pole, but I noticed that Michele was cheering a bit more loudly than the rest of us. As the horses crossed the finish line, she was exultant.

            We stood there, looking at her, waiting to hear the good news. “I hit it!” Michele exclaimed. “I just hit the superfecta!” We were all very happy for her—and then she got a little bit of a sheepish look on her face. She held up her program, and you could see, clear as day, numbers 2,3,4, and 5 boldly circled. But something looked off. Then she pointed to the very top of the program: Santa Rosa.

She started to laugh; we all started to laugh; and then she admitted: “I accidentally picked all of my horses using Race 7 from Santa Rosa!”

But sure enough, her ticket read “Race 7: Del Mar,” so Michele was indeed a winner, and she picked up a sweet $105.17 for her ten-cent bet.

I’ve always said that it’s better to be lucky than it is to be good—but it’s always better to be both. I’ve also talked about beginner’s luck, and how a first-timer’s win at the track can hook them for life. But Michele has been to the track plenty of times before, so it wasn’t exactly beginner’s luck. Part of me can’t help but think that Odie was smiling down on her, and he wanted to give all of us a great big laugh.

            The rest of the day just kept getting better and better, culminating with a trip down to the winner’s circle after Race 9, when I’m a Risque Girl, trained by Andy Mathis, won King Odie’s race impressively. The winning connections were gracious enough to let Terri and I crash their photo—and after that, all of Odie’s entourage managed to get a group photo to commemorate the moment.

I know it might sound corny, but if I don’t cash another ticket the rest of the Del Mar meet, I can still put this meet down in the books as a winning one, because what I experienced on Sunday—in Odie’s memory—was absolutely priceless.

Spot Play

I went to war with my Sunday Spot Play, #1 Spirit Maker in Race 6, with both my own bankroll and the bankroll I had for the LRF Cares contest. I bet my nut on him to win, and he should have won—but he just couldn’t get through on the rail at a critical juncture, and then when he did, he exploded late but could only manage second. It was my fault I went bust, however; I should have also used him in exactas with a few other horses, including the winner, #9 Exultation, who absolutely figured and who was one of two other horses I talked about on Pete’s podcast when we discussed the Pick 6. Let’s hope the racing luck turns around for us this week!

            Today, it’s not so much that I have a Spot Play in Race 3—a $50K claimer for 3-year-old fillies going 5-furlongs on the turf with the rails at 30-feet—it’s more that I’m not crazy about the top two choices, #6 Primrose Ridge (GB) (5/2) and #3 Court Snort (3/1). The former ran in a stakes race in her U.S. debut back in March at Gulfstream Park, and now she shows up out here for the $50K tag. She could win, but that doesn’t really excite me. The latter has hinted at ability, and she’s faced some better animals, but she’s been coming way off the pace in route races of late, so she’s going to need an aggressive ride today with the rails out 30-feet.

            I’ll take the two early speed horses in the race: #4 SHE’S RESILIENT (4/1) and #5 SHE’S INTHEARMYNOW (6/1). These two could be four lengths clear turning for home, and they are both good enough to win. She’s Resilient was just claimed by Knapp, who is lethal off the claim, and even though this one does not exactly scream turf-breeding for her first turf try, OptixNOTES suggests she’ll be just fine on the green stuff. She’s Inthearmynow faced older foes last time on the dirt, where she chased the pace and weakened. She now makes the second start of her form cycle and has a sharp turf-sprint win to run back to. They both seem like great value in this short field.

The Feature

Sunday’s feature was the $200K Best Pal (G3), a 6-furlong main-track affair for 2-year-olds, so does it come as any surprise that it was a battle of the two Bafferts? And does it come as any surprise that the race was won by the longer priced of the two Bafferts? Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, but, yes, Baffert’s “other” horse got the job done in impressive fashion. Having played Baffert’s shell game for a very long time, I was on the right end of the trick, choosing Prince of Monaco over Muth. Here’s what I said: “I’m going to play the ‘other’ Baffert, who just happens to get the services of Prat. Remember him? A few years ago, he was schooling everyone in this colony before heading East. No knock to Hernandez, who is leading rider right now and pretty darn good, but he’s not Prat. I’m looking forward to seeing these two throwing it down.”

            Prince of Monaco actually paid a very generous $5.60 in this short field.

There is no traditional feature today, since there are no stakes races on this 8-race Thursday card, but there are two really competitive turf races as part of the Late P4, one of which—Race 5—is today’s online contest race at DMTC.com. Guess who just happened to horse-by-horse this one? Yours truly. You can check out whom I like here: Frank Scatoni Daily Picks at Del Mar (dmtc.com).

What’s On Tap This Week?

Lots of good things going on this week from both a racing and social standpoint. Check out the full Del Mar calendar for more info on what’s going on: Del Mar Events Calendar (dmtc.com).

--Thursday, 8/17: 8-races; “Free & Easy” Thursday

--Friday, 8/18: 8-races; CTT & TOC Stakes; Happy Hour; Turf Club Friday

--Saturday, 8/19: 10-races; Del Mar Oaks (G1); Uncorked Wine Festival; Daybreak at Del Mar

--Sunday, 8/20: 10-races; Solana Beach Stakes; SDSU Basketball Fest; Taste of the Turf Club

This Week’s Seminars

--Thursday, 8/17: Newcomer’s Seminar, 1:05 p.m. PDT: Newcomers' Seminar (dmtc.com)

--Saturday, 8/19: Handicapping Seminar w/Joe Lademan, 1:05 p.m. PDT: Weekend Handicapping Seminar (dmtc.com)

--Sunday, 8/20: “Best Bet” at 11:00 a.m. PDT w/Matt Miller, 2021 Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge winner: Best Bet (dmtc.com)

***

Be sure to check out www.frankscatoni.com for what’s good every day during the Del Mar meet.

As I always say: Good luck to us…and let’s make some money!!!