Actor Richard Dreyfuss' character, Jay Trotter, steps up to the window and orders the teller, "Give me the three to win. Let it ride." It's the theme of the 1989 movie that is a favorite of many horseplayers and the inspiration behind the naming of Del Mar's Opening Day feature, the $100,000 Let It Ride Stakes, a one-mile turf race for 3-year-olds.
Many of the Bing Crosby stakes have Hollywood names as a salute to Crosby, the track's founder. The "Ride" fits right in.
Ten horses are entered in the race including a participant in this year's Kentucky Derby and a filly who ran in the Del Mar Oaks this summer. Green Carrera made her U.S. debut at Del Mar in the Oaks and ran fourth.
"It was a very good run," trainer Leonard Powell states. "She was a bit slow out of the gate which is not unusual for her. The pace was not as strong as she would have liked but she finished really well. The last quarter was faster than my other horse."
Powell's other horse in the Oaks, Lookin At Diamonds, finished second to the winner Tam Tam. This will be Green Carrera's first race for Powell. Trainer Joseph O'Brien, son of European conditioner Aidan O'Brien, was the trainer of record in the Oaks. The connections decided to keep the filly stateside and she was left in Powell's care. He's been so impressed he's decided to let her loose against the boys in the Let It Ride.
"It was either go against three and up against the girls," Powell explains, "or go against our own age group against the boys. We decided on the second option."
The morning line favorite in the Let It Ride is Jordi Bear, an Irish-bred who joined trainer Philip D'Amato's barn late last year. He has yet to win in the U.S. this year, but has run second twice in entry level allowance races and was third in the G2 Del Mar Derby in August.
Pavlovian made a brief splash on the Derby Trail earlier this year with a win in the Sunland Derby at Sunland Park in New Mexico and then missed by a head in the G2 Louisiana Derby in March. More notable was that he beat eventual Kentucky Derby winner Golden Tempo who ran third that day.
Trainer Doug O'Neill and the connections entered Pavlovian in the Kentucky Derby where he ran last of the 18 horses in the race. In subsequent races he hasn't fared much better. The son of Pavel ran seventh in the G3 Matt Winn at Churchill Downs; sixth in the $150,000 Real Good Deal Stakes at Del Mar this summer; eighth and last in the G2 Del Mar Derby and then he threw the rider at the start of the G3 Oklahoma Derby at Remington Park.
"He's a fighter," says Leandro Mora, assistant trainer to O'Neill. "He's just his worst enemy sometime. He trips or he looks the other way when the gates open. But he should be tough."
They tried Pavlovian on the turf for the first time in the Del Mar Derby and will give it a go again on Friday.
"His sire Pavel never ran on the turf," Mora reasons, "but he's produced a lot of turfers. Kind of like American Pharoah, who never raced on the turf but produced some good turf horses."
O'Neill has another horse entered in the Let It Ride. Acknowledgemeplz was last seen racing in Saudi Arabia where he ran seventh in the Saudi Derby in February.
"He had some feet problems," Mora explains. "So, we gave him plenty of time to heal and now he's back where I think he belongs."
Friday's feature will be the first time on the turf for Acknowledgemeplz as well as for Ocean Bear, last fall's Golden State Juvenile Stakes winner at Del Mar. The son of Bolt d'Oro won three of his four races as a 2-year-old and trainer George Papaprodromou sees his ridgling rounding back into form.
"Yes, a hundred percent," he says. "He's doing great. I don't know what happened in the last race. That was his only bad race. He came off the layoff and ran third (in the Real Good Deal Stakes at Del Mar in July) and I don't know, maybe I ran him back too soon."
Ocean Bear's last race was the $125,000 Shared Belief at Del Mar in September where he ran a distant sixth of seven horses.
Another horse to keep an eye on is Deucari from the Richard Baltas barn. The son of Collected won first time out at Santa Anita in September. He'll be going two turns for the first time in the Let It Ride, which will be Race 6 on the opening day card. Probable post time is 3 p.m.
Del Mar, Friday, November 6, 2026, Race 6Entries: Let It Ride S.
PP Horse Jockey Wgt Trainer M/L 1 1Tailgunner Joe (KY) Jamie P. Spencer 122 Jonathan Thomas 12/1 2 2Jordi Bear (IRE) Joel Rosario 120 Philip D'Amato 3/1 3 3Tap the Gin (KY) Kazushi Kimura 120 Mark Glatt 8/1 4 4Acknowledgemeplz (FL) Emisael Jaramillo 120 Doug F. O'Neill 6/1 5 5Ocean Bear (CA) Mike E. Smith 120 George Papaprodromou 12/1 6 6Pavlovian (CA) Juan J. Hernandez 124 Doug F. O'Neill 12/1 7 7Matt At Five (CA) Hector Isaac Berrios 120 Peter Miller 6/1 8 8Green Carrera (GB) Umberto Rispoli 119 Leonard Powell 7/2 9 9Deucari (KY) Drayden Van Dyke 120 Richard Baltas 6/1 10 10Wild West Coast (CA) Armando Ayuso 119 Neil D. Drysdale 20/1
Thomas Back at Del Mar
Horses have been arriving on the backside of Del Mar this week in advance of this year's Bing Crosby Season. One of the early arrivals is the string of horses from the Jonathan Thomas stable. The 46-year-old conditioner has enjoyed quite a bit of success during Del Mar's fall meet the past couple of years. This year he brings a full string of horses to the seaside oval.
"The last two years a lot of it was about timing," Thomas explains. "Having a horse that's in a good form cycle at the right time. Fortunately, the last two years that's been the case. Hopefully we can replicate a little bit of that. We've got some up and comers and some horses coming off breaks that need to step up."
Thomas' exceptional run at Del Mar started in 2024, the first year he stabled horses fulltime at the seaside oval. First, he won the G3 Red Carpet with Mrs. Astor on Thanksgiving Day. The next day he won the G2 Hollywood Turf Cup with Truly Quality and then the next day he was back in the winner's circle with Will Then, who romped home to win the G3 Jimmy Durante.
"I wouldn't say we gear up for Del Mar," Thomas notes. "It just seems to fit the natural flow of our barn. We operate fairly organically in the sense that when they're ready and they're doing well, we run. Because we take a little more time with our 2-year-olds than most, they get to where they need to be by this time of year."
Trainers pull off encores all the time, but Thomas' return to Del Mar in the fall of 2025 was quite remarkable. He came back with the same horses in the same races and won again; Mrs. Astor in the Red Carpet and Truly Quality in the Turf Cup. That's why his 'no show' at the summer meet at Del Mar this year was bewildering for many though it comes with a reasonable explanation.
"It was just numeric," Thomas says of his absence. "The number of horses we had. This 25 that we have now is our entire string. It's everything I've got. It's just hard splitting up a smaller size barn."
Thomas' solution to the problem. Just bring the whole bunch of them out to Del Mar. All 25. No splitting up necessary. That's what he's done this fall.
Thomas did run one horse at Del Mar during the summer meet...and he won. Observed captured the G3 Juvenile Turf Stakes in September.
"We hope to get Observed back for the Cecil B. DeMille (closing day, November 29 at Del Mar)," Thomas states. "We also have Ambaya who I thought ran well the other day in the Goldikova (at Santa Anita) with a troubled trip and we'll try to get her to the Matriarch (also closing day at Del Mar). So, some returning horses need to step up, have a really good three or four weeks out here and hopefully bring their 'A' game when it counts."
Thomas is hoping to put a nice wrap on a year that is on pace to equal his past two years in which earnings topped $2 million.
"I think we've made the most of what we've had," Thomas says. "We had a really good summer. We won some big races on the dirt, which was nice. I'm proud of our team, proud of our horses and our clients. I think we've had a really nice year."
The dirt race he's referring to was the G3 West Virginia Derby at Mountaineer. He won with his Quality Road colt Zihnal.
While Mrs. Astor is retired from racing, Truly Quality is still active. He recently won the $75,000 Remington Green at Remington Park. Thomas says they'd like to get him back to the Hollywood Turf Cup on Friday, November 27 at Del Mar.
"We love being out here," Thomas says of Del Mar. "We always want to bring the best of what we have and put our best foot forward. Hopefully we can get lucky a little bit again."
Cooling Out
The eight races carded for Opening Day tomorrow offer a nice selection of opportunities. There will be three allowance races, two claiming races, two races for maidens and the stakes race...Stronghold has been retired from racing. The 5-year-old son of Ghostzapper ran four times at Del Mar over a 16-race career that included runner-up finishes in the 2023 G3 Bob Hope and the 2025 G2 Pat O'Brien. He'll be best remembered for providing trainer Philip D'Amato's with his first Kentucky Derby horse. After he captured the 2024 G1 Santa Anita Derby, he finished seventh in Louisville...Another healthy portion of racing is on tap for Saturday. Entries were pulled Wednesday and 88 horses were entered in the nine-race program.
