Horse racing notes: Spendarella to run in Saturday’s Del Mar Oaks

DEL MAR LEADERS

Through Thursday

JOCKEYS / WINS

Juan Hernandez / 30

Umberto Rispoli / 15

Joe Bravo / 12

Ramon Vazquez / 12

Hector Berrios / 8

TRAINERS / WINS

Bob Baffert / 11

Philip D’Amato / 10

Peter Miller / 10

Doug O’Neill / 10

George Papaprodromou / 9

WEEKEND STAKES (DEL MAR)

Friday

• $100,000 CTT and TOC Stakes, fillies and mares, 3-year-olds and up, 1-3/8 miles (turf)

Saturday

• $300,000 Grade I Del Mar Oaks, 3-year-old fillies, 1-1/8 miles (turf)

Sunday

• $150,000 Solana Beach Stakes, fillies and mares, 3-year-olds and up bred in California, 1 mile (turf)

DOWN THE STRETCH

• Del Mar’s “Ship and Win” program, in its 12th year, is off to a strong start through the first half of the track’s summer meet. Ship and Win horses have won 17 races from 143 starts – 68 on dirt and 75 on the turf. The Ship and Win program offers out-of-state owners and trainers a bonus for just showing up and running at Del Mar ($5,000 for dirt runners and $4,000 for turf horses) and they can earn an additional bonus with a percentage of the purse money they win in their initial start (50% for dirt horses and 40% to turf types).

• Santa Anita will again offer its “Ship and Win” program during its fall meet that begins Friday, Sept. 30. Track management offers a $5,000 bonus for any eligible horse making his or her first start and a 35% bonus, excluding stakes races, on any purse money earned. “Ship and Win has proven to be a very effective catalyst in attracting new equine talent and we’re very hopeful that many horsemen will opt to stay in Southern California following Del Mar and to participate in this lucrative program here at our autumn meet,” Santa Anita racing secretary Chris Merz said in a statement.

• Spendarella, a winner of three of her four career starts, has been shipped to Del Mar by trainer Graham Motion to run in Saturday’s $300,000 Grade I Del Mar Oaks for 3-year-old fillies on the turf. Spendarella, who arrived at Del Mar earlier this week, broke her maiden at Gulfstream Park, won the Grade III Herecomesthebride turf mile at the South Florida track and then captured the Grade II Appalachian at Keeneland before a third-place finish in the Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot in her most recent start. The race has drawn a full field of 14, half of whom have won a graded stakes in the U.S. or a group stakes in Europe.

— Art Wilson