Fundamental Change Needed After Loss of Hope

The good folks in the Del Mar racing office tried twice to make a go of the Bob Hope Stakes (G3) before giving up, an unfortunate development that has cast a pall of apocalyptic gloom over the Southern California racing scene. Or at least it should, because it's no joke. To those outside the world of West Coast racing, the loss of a single, minor stakes on the United States landscape causes hardly a glimmer of concern. After all, there were 192 races granted grade 3 status in 2025 by the American Graded Stakes Committee. However, in its splendid isolation, California racing must cling to whatever prestige it is still granted by the eastern establishment. Losing any graded race is no laughing matter, even one named for a famous comedian who lived to be 100. Speaking of Bob Hope, there is no better way to distract from the dire problem of California's 2-year-old division than a few one-liners from Old Ski Nose himself. ("Bigamy is the only crime where two rites make a wrong." "A Freudian slip is when you say one thing but mean your mother.") Back in the day, Hope used to hang out at Del Mar with his pal, Bing Crosby, for whom the autumn meet is named. "Bing Crosby and I weren't the types to go around kissing each other," Hope said. "We always had a light jab for each other. One of our stock lines used to be, 'There's nothing I wouldn't do for Bing, and there's nothing he wouldn't do for me.' And that's the way we go through life—doing nothing for each other!" The Bob Hope is a 7-furlong event for 2-year-olds that was supposed to be run Nov. 16. The race attracted 10 nominations—four of them trained by Doug O'Neill and four by Bob Baffert. The other two hailed from the stables of Peter Miller and Jonathan Thomas. When only some of Baffert's were entered, racing secretary David Jerkens took a deep breath and left the box open, rescheduling the Hope for Nov. 21. It didn't work. There remained no interest in the race beyond the Baffert entries. The race was canceled—canceled so hard that for some reason all reference to the Hope was removed from the original stakes schedule published on the Del Mar website. Ouch. The Bob Hope has been presented at Del Mar since 2014, when the seaside track took over the late dates left dangling by the close of Hollywood Park. At Hollywood, the race was called the Prevue, and some very good young Thoroughbreds won the event on their way to bigger things, among them King Glorious, Olympio, Afternoon Deelites, Lion Heart, and Eclipse Award champions Declan's Moon and Shared Belief. Baffert won the Prevue six times, plus seven of the 11 Bob Hopes at Del Mar so far. It is no secret that the race has been hanging by a thread in recent seasons. The most recent fields have numbered five, four, five, four, six, four, and five. Of the 18 horses that have run in the last four Hopes, 10 were trained by Baffert. Still, the Hope's grade 3 rating would seem safe, even in the face of the 2025 cancellation. The 1-2 finishers in 2023 were Nysos, who took this year's Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile (G1), and Stronghold, winner of the 2024 Santa Anita Derby (G1). Mucho Gusto, the winner in 2018, later won the 2020 Pegasus World Cup Invitational Stakes (G1). The 2-year-olds finishing 2-3-4 in 2022 went on to win the 2024 Santa Anita Handicap (G1), the 2023 Santa Anita Derby, and the 2024 Pacific Classic Stakes (G1). An informal poll of the three trainers who did not enter their nominated Hope horses was revealing. All of them would have been longshots to penetrate the Baffert phalanx. O'Neill maintained that he nominated his foursome early and the Hope simply did not fit their present condition or immediate plans. Thomas conceded that he "over nominated" Kid Charlemagne and entered him instead in a Nov. 22 maiden claimer, which he won easily as the choice. Miller withheld the maiden winner Dirty Rich, who cost $35,000 as a yearling. Given the nomination list, he saw what was coming—yet another Baffert parade. As part owner as well as trainer, he wanted to send a message, something the cancellation of the Bob Hope should have sounded loud and clear. In announcing the cancellation of the Bob Hope, Jerkens told Daily Racing Form that, "We're dealing with a very limited pool of 2-year-old winners." As a refresher, there were 13 maiden special weight races on the dirt open to all 2-year-olds spread over the 31 days of the 2025 Del Mar summer meet, along with four graded main track stakes. Baffert colts and fillies won eight of the maiden races and all four stakes. His patrons had 10 of the 24 runners in those four stakes and took away $705,000 of the $902,000 in prize money. "The racetracks out here have a problem, and they know it," Miller said. "One trainer dominating 2-year-old dirt racing with owners spending millions upon millions of dollars is not a healthy situation. I don't blame Bob at all. I would do the same thing he's doing if I could. I blame the people allowing it to continue to happen." California horsemen have been required to get creative. Dirty Rich was among a group of horses sent by Miller to Churchill Downs earlier this year to take advantage of a new wave of auction races, for which maidens that had been sold for no more than a certain amount are eligible. Dirty Rich had no luck in Kentucky, but his barnmate, the filly Mo 'Em Down, made Miller's trip worthwhile by winning a maiden special weight with a $92,000 purse "for horses that sold or RNA for $65,000 or less in their most recent auction." The alternative would have been to run nine days earlier in a maiden race at Santa Anita Park, which Baffert won with the $900,000 filly Himika and finished second with Bottle of Rouge, owned by his wife, Jill Baffert. Mo 'Em Down returned to California a winner and finished second to Himika in the Sorrento Stakes (G3) at Del Mar. Miller sees no reason why such auction races cannot become a key component of every summer and fall California racing program, when the 2-year-old division begins to emerge. A few such races have been tried, along with a rare claiming race for 2-year-olds in the $100,000-plus range, but so far any efforts can only be described as experimental. "People should not have to leave California to develop their 2-year-olds, but that's become the case," Miller said. "Continuing to do what does not work makes no sense. Take your open 2-year-old program, put half of it in auction races, and commit to a change. It can't be piecemeal." World-class 2-year-olds can still be developed in California. Super Corredora, who lost a maiden race won by a Baffert filly, went to the head of her class by winning the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1), while Mr. A. P., who finished second to Dirty Rich in a rare $150,000 maiden claimer, finished second to Ted Noffey in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1). There is no depth to the division, however, and nothing to encourage new investors beyond those patrons who keep the Baffert stable well stocked, while benefitting from the status quo. Getting serious for once, Bob Hope himself said, "When we recall the past, we usually find that it is the simplest things, not the great occasions, that in retrospect give off the greatest glow of happiness." Whether or not there ever will be another Bob Hope Stakes remains to be seen. It's clear, though, that California racing needs to do the simple things well again, like running a 7-furlong stakes race for 2-year-olds in November.