Stable Notes Del Mar, California
Friday, July 25 (Day 3)

11 FILLIES SET FOR CTBA STAKES ON DEL MAR'S FIRST TWILIGHT PROGRAM

Eleven 2-year-old fillies are scheduled to go to the post Friday in the $100,000-added California Thoroughbred Breeders Association Stakes, the featured race in the track's first "Four O'Clock Friday" twilight racing program. First post is 4 p.m.

Czarina, coming in from success in Northern California, will carry high weight of 120 pounds, with Rattle My Nerves and Dereks Baby Girl next with 117. If all 11 start, the gross purse will be $112,120, with the winner's share being $72,120. Subtract $1,000 for each scratch.

HIGH STAKES PLAYER HEADS FIELD OF EIGHT FOR CROSBY BREEDERS' CUP

Expected to offer major competition is Bill M. Thomas' Score Quick, who returned from a year's layoff to capture Hollywood Park's Grade III Triple Bend Breeders' Cup Handicap at odds of 35-1 on June 29. The Mel Stute trainee will carry 115 pounds and will have Goncalino Almeida in the irons.

Also in to challenge High Stakes Player, who will carry high weight of 120 pounds including David Flores, are Budget Stable's Boundless Moment, Thomas and Thomas' Cold n Calculating, Lima Family Trust's First Intent, Jean Michel Zerolo's Lucky Lionel, Martinez and Martinez's Plenty Zloty and BBC Stable, Davenport and Headley's Son of a Pistol.

Here's the way they'll line up from the rail, with weights and riders: First Intent, 115, Rene Douglas; High Stakes Player; Plenty Zloty, 110, Julio Garcia; Score Quick; Son of a Pistol, 113, Alex Solis; Boundless Moment, 118, Eddie Delahoussaye; Lucky Lionel, 114, Corey Nakatani; Cold n Calculating, 111, Octavio Vergara.

STEVENS TO FLY OCEAN TWICE, RIDE AT ASCOT BEFORE NEXT SEASIDE RIDE

Jockey Gary Stevens will have a chance to pad his frequent flier miles this weekend as he heads for England to ride in the Group I King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes at Ascot in England on Saturday. He left Del Mar following the seventh race on Thursday to fly on to London for his Saturday riding date. He was held up Thursday night in Phoenix when the plane he was scheduled to ride was delayed by engine trouble, but was expected to leave late Friday morning and arrive in London Saturday morning, in plenty of time to ride in the 3 p.m. race.

Stevens, who will be inducted into U.S. racing's Hall of Fame on August 4 at Saratoga Springs, N.Y., has the mount on Sheikh Mohammed's Predappio, making his first Group I start. It will be a return engagement for Stevens, since he won with Predappio in the Group II Hardwick Stakes at the Royal Ascot meeting in June. One of Predappio's victims in that race was Pilsudski, the 1996 Breeders' Cup Turf victor.

"It's a million-dollar race," Stevens said. "It's a great race, one of the greatest races in the world. They tell me it's going to be one of the best fields assembled in Europe in many years. Sheikh Mohammed requested that I come. We've had lots of luck together. I'm looking forward to the trip."

Stevens and the sheikh combined for victory in the 1990 Breeders' Cup Turf with In The Wings. Also expected for the Ascot race are Helissio, Singspiel, Pilsudski, Kingfisher Mill, Shantou, Swain and Strategic Choice.

AGELESS THREEWITT GETS YOUNG FEELING AGAIN WITH 2-YEAR- OLD COLT

Noble Threewitt, whose 86 years look more like 60, has an extra spring in his step these days thanks to a tough little 2-year-old named Old Topper, who finished second to K.O. Punch in the recent Hollywood Juvenile Stakes.

Threewitt, who got his trainer's license in 1932, likes what he sees about the colt owned by Barbara Hunter, the adopted daughter of Mrs. Frances Jelks, who died late last year. After finishing fourth in his first start and getting beaten a nose in his second before breaking his maiden in his third, Old Topper was an impressive second in the Juvenile after breaking slowly and winding up many lengths behind early in the race.

The amiable Threewitt, who says he's opened almost every racetrack in the western states, noted the colt's name has a family connection for the late Mrs. Jelks. "She told me her father called her 'Little Topper' when she was a child and she began calling him 'Old Topper,' and that's where the name comes from."

Threewitt said he plans to start Old Topper next in Del Mar's Grade III, $100,000-added Best Pal Stakes on Wednesday, August 20.

PATRICK VALENZUELA LICENSED TO RIDE AGAIN AT DEL MAR MEETING

Jockey Patrick Valenzuela, who finished second in the jockey standings during the 1996 Del Mar season, is hoping to reprise that effort this year after being licensed by the Del Mar stewards on Thursday, thus ending a nine-month suspension for the 34-year-old native of Montrose, CO.

Valenzuela was galloping horses Friday morning as he began his pursuit of racing fitness before trying to ride competitively again. Obvioulsy happy to be back at the track, a smiling Valenzuela said he couldn't say exactly when he might ride competitively, but indicated he didn't think it would take too long to get fit. "I have to lose a little weight, and I have to see how I feel after getting on horses in the mornings," Valenzuela said. "I'll ride when I feel I'm racehorse fit, so I can be confident I can do justice to my horses.

"I hope we can pick up where we left off last year." Valenzuela finished the meet with 42 victories, two behind leading rider Alex Solis. "P Val," as he is known to most at the track, has had good success reding at Del Mar. He ranks fifth on the track's all-time win list with 560 firsts in 16 seasons, and seventh on the stakes-win roster with 47.

Valenzuela's business is being handled by agent Don Pierce, and Pierce said it could be 10 days before the rider will be ready for afternoon action.

NEW TRAINER HOPES FOR QUICK RESULTS WITH HIS ONE-HORSE STABLE

Training on his own for only a couple of weeks, Pat Huffman, a native Kentuckian, has a one-horse stable at Del Mar, but he's hoping that that horse -- Bust the Dust -- will make plenty of noise as he debuts Saturday in an allowance race at the seaside course.

Huffman, 32, doesn't lack for experience, having grown up around the barn of his trainer father William G. "Blackie" Huffman, a well-known conditioner who makes his headquaters at Churchill Downs in Louisville. He served a further apprenticeship in the Jack Van Berg system for eight years, before becoming his father's chief assistant six years ago.

His trainee, a son of Housebuster, broke his maiden on June 7 at Churchill Downs, finished second in a Churchill allowance race and then ran fourth in a stakes at Ellis Park earlier this month. "We decided to bring him out here and give him a shot," Huffman said. "He's training good and this has turned out to be a nice race and we got a nice post [Number 4]."

Bust the Dust, owned by Stanley Lowenbraun, was entered in Del Mar's opening-day feature, the Oceanside Stakes, but made the also-eligible list in the second division and didn't get to run. Rene Douglas will ride in Saturday's outing.

SHORE LINES -- Visiting on Del Mar's backstretch Friday was April Mayberry, daughter of trainers Brian and Jean Mayberry, and a trainer on her own at Churchill Downs for the past several years. It was a busman's holiday for April as she joined her parents at trackside to watch their trainees go through their paces. ... Trainer Craig Lewis said his celebrated Larry the Legend is in the midst of another comeback attempt, but that won't happen at Del Mar. Lewis said "Larry" is in his barn here but probably won't run until Santa Anita's Oak Tree meeting in October. ... Getting ready for his third straight try at Del Mar's popular "Rocking Chair Derby" is former jockey Alex Maese. He's galloping horses again for Sandy Shulman, for whom he has worked for several Del Mar seasons, but this season the 68-year-young rider has added the Walter Greenman barn to his list. ... Jockeys Goncalino Almeida, Kent Desormeaux and defending Del Mar riding champion Alex Solis all have three winners after the meet's first two days. There's bad news for Solis, however, as he has been handed a three-day suspension beginning July 30 for interference in Wednesday's second race aboard Woodman's Dancer. ... Recent sharp workouts: Thursday -- 3 furlongs: Slewby Dewby Dew, :34 4/5; Duchess of Ack, :34 4/5; Mergele, :34 4/5; 4 furlongs: Lets Get Cozzy, :46 3/5; 5 furlongs: Lloydminister, :58 4/5; Score Quick, :59; Turf: Debutant Trick, 1:02 for 5 furlongs; King of Swing, 1:15 for 6 furlongs, working in company with Sandpit, who clocked 1:16 1/5.

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