Philip D'Amato

Adare Manor (f, 4, Uncle Mo--Brooklynsway, by Giant Gizmo), a big, rangy daughter of her Breeders' Cup-winning sire, made it four in a row and a first Grade I with a facile win in the $400,000 GI Clement L. Hirsch S. at Del Mar Saturday. The filly will likely attempt to win a Breeders' Cup of her own as the "Win and You're In" Hirsch offers a fees-paid berth to the GI Distaff, which will be held at Santa Anita in November. When the field broke in the Hirsch, it...

Conclude (Collected) brought his stakes-winning form with him from Santa Anita and returned to the winner's circle in Del Mar's customary opening day feature--the Caesars Sportsbook Oceanside S. A winner a black-type winner at the turf sprint distance last out May 21 in Santa Anita's Desert Code S., Conclude's first race after his freshening from that contest proved fruitful as the 9-2 second choice here. Showing some early speed after the jump but quickly overtaken and outrun by a loose leader on the clubhouse turn, the chestnut son of GI...

It's not a too common occurrence for sales-topping purchases to make it on the track despite the world of promise their pedigree, physical, and connections might imply. Further out still is the extraordinary feat of reproducing themselves or--at the very least--producing several runners of equitable talent between them, though stallions have the task on significantly easier asking than do the fillies and mares. Mendelssohn is patiently inching closer to changing that outlook and his Del Mar winner from last Saturday proves the stallion can get a promising runner at any...

Fergus Cousins, the retired vet who bred GII San Clemente S. winner Bellabel (Ire) (Belardo {Ire}), described that Del Mar triumph as his best moment in racing. Bellabel, formally trained by Jessica Harrington in Ireland, won the Grade II contest on debut for Philip D'Amato, sparking hopes that bigger and better things could be coming in the sales ring for her breeder. Cousins has four broodmares at his base in Dunshaughlin in County Meath. He bought Fashion Line (Ire) (Cape Cross {Ire}), the dam of Bellabel, for €32,000 at the...

Seven-year-old Count Again (Awesome Again) sliced through horses and blew past heavily favored Smooth Like Strait (Midnight Lute) in the lane to annex Monday's GI Shoemaker Mile S. at Santa Anita. Picking up an automatic spot in the starting gate for the GI Breeders' Cup Mile later this year, Count Again's victory was the fourth on the card for East Coast invader Irad Ortiz, Jr.--with a runner-up finish in the only other race run to that point--and was won in notably similar fashion to Ortiz's score in the GI Hollywood...

Elm Drive took command of the Angels Flight S. and never looked like anything but the winner in an eye-catching 3-year-old bow reminiscent of her early juvenile form. As brilliant as she was on unveiling June 26 at Los Alamitos, where she dominated a five furlong field of maidens by eight easy lengths, and then a head victorious in Del Mar's GII Sorrento S. Aug. 6 over eventual GISW Eda (Munnings), she was as uncharacteristically dull in her prior two starts. Eased to a distant seventh in the GI Del...