City to City, usually there or
thereabouts in her races but winless in 2011, knifed through between horses
entering the stretch under jockey Garrett Gomez and went on to win the featured
$150,000 Palomar Handicap for older fillies and mares Monday.
City to City, trained by recent Hall
of Fame inductee Jerry Hollendorfer who this summer also sent out his 6,000th
winner, reached the wire three-quarters of a length in front of the pacesetting
Medaglia d’Amour and jockey Joe Talamo, with Go Forth North, the lukewarm 4-1
favorite, checking in third in the field of nine distaffers. All Star Heart was
fourth.
Withdrawn from the original field
were Miss Pleasant, Apple Charlotte and Somme.
City to City, co-owned by William
DeBurgh, Mark DeDominico and Hollendorfer, accomplished the mile and
one-sixteenth over the infield Jimmy Durante Turf Course in 1:41.58. The daughter
of City Zip was scoring her sixth success in 19 lifetime starts and first money
of $90,000 increased her earnings to $371,491.
The winner returned $13.60, $6.60
and $3.60; Medaglia d’Amour paid $6.40 and $5, while Go Forth North returned $4
to show.
In the Labor Day Monday supporting
feature, 8-1 outsider Ruler of Dubai took advantage of a stumbling start by 3-5
favored Champions Gate to go to the front and never look back in scoring by 3 ¼
lengths under Mike Smith in the $100,000 I’m Smokin Stakes.
Champions Gate rallied from last
after his poor break to get up for second, a head in front of Rousing Sermon in
the field of six California-bred two-year-olds. Inquisitive Son was fourth.
Providing Hall of Famer Smith with
only his third victory of the summer season, Ruler of Dubai accomplished the
six furlongs over Polytrack in a rapid 1:09.42, fastest for the stakes since
Del Mar’s change to a synthetic main track surface in 2007.
Owned by Harout Kashishian and
trained by George Papaprodromou, Ruler of Dubai was winning his second stakes
of the summer, having won the Graduation Stakes in his previous outing. Earning
$60,000 for the win, the juvenile returned $19.20, $5.60 and $3.20 across the
board.
Joel Rosario, seeking his third
straight Del Mar riding title, virtually clinched the championship with a
triple Monday after winning four races Sunday. He increased his victory total
to 49, eight more than his closest rival, Talamo, with only Wednesday’s
closing-day program remaining of the 2011 Del Mar meeting.
With a carryover of $273,832 from
Sunday, $1,433,709 in “new” money was wagered Monday for a total Pick Six pool
of $1,707,541. There were 163 perfect tickets and each was worth $63,077.
Monday’s Labor Day attendance was
11,532.