Racing! New weekly feature starting today

Hello, my name is John Cherwa and welcome back to our horse racing newsletter as we’re sad to learn Victor Espinoza will miss the rest of Del Mar but glad he’ll fully recover.

Today we’re inaugurating a new weekly feature based on feedback from you readers. As long as I can get my hands on them, we’ll publish the stewards’ sanctions from the previous week. Now, this won’t include rulings on races dealing with taking a horse down or not doing so. Those may or may not be in the stewards’ minutes, which are not made public until much later.

It should help you understand why you haven’t seen your favorite jockey for a few days or fines against owners and trainers. The hope is this can be in the newsletter every week, but we are at the mercy of the California Horse Racing Board publishing those rulings.

Media liaison Mike Marten said the CHRB is working on a way to get things like this published in a more timely matter. The hope is to have that technology in place by the end of the year.

So, let’s get right to it. As a warning, most of these are not terribly interesting, but every once in a while there’s a real doozy.

These came out on July 22.

--Owner Eric Knipe, who does business as Equine Formula One EF1, is suspended and barred from the track for failure to appear before the stewards regarding an alleged violation of financial responsibility.

--Jockey Kyle Frey is suspended for three days (July 29, Aug. 1-2) for failing to keep his mount, Truck Salesman on July 21, on a straight course in the stretch. He can ride in specialty races.

--Jockey Rafael Bejarano is fined $100 for using the whip on Vexatious on July 21 more than three times without giving the horse a chance to respond.

Victor Espinzoa out for Del Mar

Jockey Victor Espinoza, who suffered a fractured C-3 vertebra in a training accident, will miss the remainder of the Del Mar meeting as he heals. He is expected to make a full recovery, though.

Brian Beach, Espinoza’s agent, told Jay Privman of the Daily Racing Form that the jockey would have to wear a neck brace for the next six weeks. “[It’s] more to remind him not to turn his head sideways suddenly,” Beach said.

Espinoza will remain at Scripps La Jolla Hospital for the next few days.

He was hurt when his mount, Bobby Abu Dhabi, a graded stakes winner, suffered what is believed to be a heart attack during a workout. The horse went right down and Espinoza was thrown to the ground where paramedics put him in a neck brace and on a back board and took him to the hospital.

A necropsy is planned for Bobby Abu Dhabi.

You can read more in Jay’s story. Just click here.

Justify to parade

Justify’s victory tour continues on Saturday at Del Mar. The Triple Crown winner will parade in front of the crowd after the fourth race at about 3:30 p.m. He’s expected to go around the paddock a few times, then through the tunnel and onto the main track. This will be his third post-Belmont appearance having done similar outings at Churchill Downs and Santa Anita.

Jockey Mike Smith will do an autograph session from noon until 1 p.m. in the Plaza de Mexico, near the fountain. If it goes anything like the session he did at Santa Anita, it will go longer than an hour.

Justify’s future remains up in the air. He was pulled from training because of a filling in his front hoof. Some think he has run his last race. Trainer Bob Baffert has ruled out all the races at Del Mar and the main ones on the East Coast, the Haskell and Travers. He still has the Breeders’ Cup Classic on his radar, but he would likely require a prep race if that were to happen. Time is running out.

Del Mar preview

Not a lot of places you can see a graded stakes on a Wednesday but Del Mar would be one of those places. Wednesday the track hosts the marathon 1 ½-mile Grade 3 Cougar II Handicap. The favorite is the beloved Hoppertunity, at 6-5. The 7-year-old will be making his 34^th start. He’s won nine races.

In his last race, he rallied for fourth in the Suburban at Belmont. He did win the 1 ½-mile Brooklyn at Belmont and 1 ½-mile Tokyo City at Santa Anita.

During Belmont Stakes week this year, Hoppertunity would often work at the same time as Justify, the eventual Triple Crown winner. Trainer Bob Baffert would often joke that Hopper, as he calls him, thought the big crowd was there to watch him run. Flavien Prat is the jockey.

The second favorite is Unapologetic, at 4-1, for trainer Bill Spawr and jockey Mike Smith. Unapologetic has not been racing at the graded stakes level, but did win his last 1 1/2-mile race at Santa Anita. The 5-year-old gelding has won five of his lifetime 23 races.

Here are the field sizes, in order: 7, 7 ,9, 6, 8, 10, 8, 10. First post is 2 p.m. with the feature going at about 5 p.m.

Bob Ike’s DMR pick of the day

THIRD RACE: No. 8 Tomasino (7-2)

Low-level claimer from the Andy Mathis barn drops to the basement after returning from Northern California. The 6-year-old gelding is drawn favorably outside, won over this track two summers ago and has trained very steadily for his first start in seven weeks. No reason he can't beat this bunch as third choice on the morning line.

Sunday’s result: Sharp Samurai fired a good shot but had to settle for second in the Eddie Read Stakes.

Bob Ike is a Partner/VP of Horsebills.com (here's a video) and the proprietor of BobIkePicks.com (full-card picks, 3 Best Plays and betting strategy).

Final thought

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Any thoughts, don’t hit reply as I won’t see that email, instead you can reach me at [email protected]. You can also feed my ego by following me on Twitter @jcherwa

Now, the star of the show, Wednesday’s entries.