Kretz Racing's Cabo Spirit will try to secure the third grade 2 win of his career and his fifth graded stakes score overall when he faces an expected eight other rivals in the Seabiscuit Handicap (G2T) Nov. 29 at Del Mar.
The Seabiscuit (Race 5, 1:30 p.m. PT post) is one of three graded stakes scheduled for the turf Saturday at Del Mar, with the Jimmy Durante Stakes (G3T) (Race 7, 2:30 PT) for 2-year-old fillies also scheduled ahead of the featured Hollywood Derby (G1T).
Cabo Spirit, a 6-year-old Pioneerof the Nile gelding, captured the American Stakes (G3T) in April at Santa Anita Park for trainer George Papaprodromou. While he has not returned to the winner's circle since, he has consistently run well to finish second or third in four stakes—three grade 2 events as well as the grade 1 Shoemaker Mile Stakes where he missed by a neck when third.
Umberto Rispoli is scheduled to ride Cabo Spirit for the first time since guiding him to a fourth-place finish in the 2023 Maker's Mark Mile Stakes (G1T) at Keeneland.
While Cabo Spirit brings his consistent in-the-money finishes at this level into Saturday's race, My Way Racing's El Potente will try to return to the winning form he displayed at the beginning of the year ahead off an extended layoff. The 6-year-old Temple City horse won an allowance-optional claiming race at Santa Anita in January and then followed with a three-length score there in his graded stakes debut: the Thunder Road Stakes (G3T). He has not started since that Feb. 1 win but has been working regularly for trainer Dan Blacker.
El Potente will carry 121 pounds while Cabo Spirit is the 123-pound highweight along with stakes-winning multiple grade 2-placed Almendares and grade 3 winner Stay Hot.
In the Jimmy Durante, a pair of stakes-placed fillies are among the expected field of 11 aiming for a grade 3 win in the one-mile turf test. Those fillies are Jeffrey Drown and Michael Ryan's Sweet Little Lila, a maiden who finished third in the Selima Stakes at Laurel Park in late September, and Glenn Sorgenstein WC Racing's Hypergamy, who finished third in the Del Mar Juvenile Fillies Turf Stakes in September at Del Mar.
Brittany Russell conditions Sweet Little Lila, by Palace Pier, while Doug O'Neill trains Hypergamy, a daughter of Triple Crown winner American Pharoah . O'Neill also will send out Latte Luv in this race. The daughter of Constitution posted a front-running score in an Oct. 3 maiden race—her second start overall and first try on the turf.
Multiple Eclipse Award winner Chad Brown ships in Just Aloof, a daughter of Triple Crown winner Justify who rallied from fifth to win her career debut Oct. 18 at Aqueduct. A homebred for Whisper Hill Farm, Just Aloof is out of the group 3-winning Galileo mare Aloof, who was purchased for $3.9 million by Whisper Hill Farm at the 2014 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale.
