If it’s closing day of Del Mar’s fall Bing Crosby meeting, that means it’s time for the $300,000 Matriarch (G1). And if it’s time for the Matriarch, the discussion starts with who trainer Chad Brown has entered.
The New York-based Brown has trained six of the last seven winners of the one-mile grass test for fillies and mares, including the last four in succession. Brown has four of the 12 entries in Sunday’s renewal, led by multiple Grade 1 winner Gina Romantica.
Gina Romantica did not contest last year’s Matriarch — she was not needed for Brown to win — but she surely would have been in the picture following a close fourth-place effort in the Breeders’ Cup Mile (G1). But instead of trying the Mile again following a third career Grade 1 triumph in the Oct. 5 First Lady (G1) at Keeneland, Gina Romantica takes her place in the Matriarch, where she breaks from post 11.
Brown’s other three are less accomplished but not incapable. Child of the Moon and Grade 2 veteran Prerequisite were separated by a neck at the end of the nine-furlong Athenia S. at Aqueduct on Oct. 19. Grade 3 scorer Tax Implications has a tougher hill to climb, though, having been more exposed against lesser.
Ag Bullet lost the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint (G1) against the boys by a neck earlier in the Del Mar meet, an improved effort off her retreating fourth to Gina Romantica in the First Lady. She’s a four-time stakes winner this season, primarily in sprints.
Ag Bullet’s early speed will be tested by Kehoe Beach, who enters off back-to-back blowout allowance wins in Kentucky for Wesley Ward. The daughter of Omaha Beach gets Frankie Dettori in the saddle for her stakes debut. Also lining up are graded mainstays Nadette, Aspen Grove, Mouffy, and Sacred Wish.
The $100,000 Cecil B. DeMille (G3), for two-year-olds at one mile on the turf, attracted a field of nine. Potential contenders include the Ward-trained Clock Tower, a pacesetting third in the Bourbon (G2); Speakeasy S. winner Pali Kitten, up the track in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint (G1) last time; and the stakes-placed maiden Scipio, a rough-trip fourth in the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance S. most recently.
The $100,000 Stormy Liberal S., a five-furlong turf dash, is led by the one-two finishers from the 2023 edition, Unconquerable Keen and Turn On the Jets. The three-year-olds Sorrento Sky and Slider merit a look, as does the mare Just Nails.
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