Kazushi Kimura scores surprising double at Del Mar – Orange County Register

DEL MAR — Kazushi Kimura arrived at Del Mar this summer with high expectations for the three-time Canadian champion jockey who had shown hints of his talent at Santa Anita earlier in the year.

“There’s a spark of genius in there,” Hall of Fame coach Bob Baffert told San Diego Union-Tribune columnist Bryce Miller in July.

After Saturday’s races, Kimura’s first season at Del Mar can be declared a definite success.

Kimura has victories with Tenma ($8) in the $300,000 Grade I Del Mar Debutante and Hang the Moon ($43) in the $250,000 Grade II John C. Mabee Stakes.

The first of those victories was Kimura’s first Grade I at Del Mar, and the second completed what the 25-year-old from Hokkaido, Japan, said was the first Grade I-Grade II double of his career.

Both victories were upsets, with Tenma defeating Baffert’s stablemate Nooni and Hang the Moon shocking Anisette and Didia.

“Everything seems to be going well, doesn’t it?” Kimura said cheerfully when asked to sum up his encounter at Del Mar. “It’s amazing. And tomorrow, maybe I’ll have a chance, too.”

On Sunday, the closing day of the Del Mar meet, Kimura will ride contenders McKinzie Street in the $300,000, Grade I Del Mar Futurity and Sabertooth in the $100,000, Grade III Del Mar Juvenile Turf, both for trainer Tim Yakteen.

Kimura’s Saturday victories came from Baffert, giving the trainer a record 11th Del Mar Debutante, and Phil D’Amato, completing a 1-2 finish for D’Amato after Hector Berrios rode Thought Process to a $2.80 victory in the $100,000 Del Mar Juvenile Fillies Turf.

Baffert is such an unstoppable force in the summer’s top 2-year-old races at Del Mar that he wins even when he loses.

Without Tenma, Baffert and his supporters would have remembered the Debutante for the disappointing performance of Nooni, the 4-5 favorite who collapsed to finish the draw after breaking his stride while running in tight spaces on the turn for home.

Even without those problems, Nooni and jockey Juan Hernandez might have struggled to win after battling outsider Proud Starlet for the lead over the opening quarter-mile in a faster-than-normal 21.50 and 44.38 seconds en route to a very average 1:23.67 for seven furlongs.

Nooni, Proud Starlet and Night Beacon, 1-2-3 approaching the far turn, finished fifth, sixth and seventh. Tenma, Vodka With a Twist and So There She Was, fifth, fourth and sixth at the halfway point, finished first, second and third.

“It’s not the way we hoped it would go,” said assistant trainer Jim Barnes, who is in charge at Del Mar while Baffert is away at the Keeneland September yearling sale in Kentucky.

Barnes was speaking from the perspective of Nooni, the daughter of Win Win Win who lived up to her $1.8 million price tag at a 2-year-old colt auction last spring by winning her first two starts, the first by 9 1/2 lengths at Santa Anita and the next by 1 1/2 lengths in the Grade III Sorrento Stakes at Del Mar.

Tenma, now 2 for 2, should improve as the distances increase, and that has Kimura optimistic about a future that should include the 1 1/16-mile Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Del Mar on Nov. 1.

“I think she’s going to want to run further,” Kimura said.

The John C. Mabee was supposed to be a battle between Anisette, the best California turf filly, and Didia, a top-quality East Coast mare. But neither came close, with Anisette finishing third and Didia fourth.

Hang the Moon, last in the seven-horse field at one point, passed everyone in the three-eighths of a mile of the 1 1/8-mile turf race to beat Lucky Girl by a half-length.

“I think she got a little overlooked here,” D’Amato said of Hang the Moon, a 4-year-old daughter of Uncle Mo who finished second to Ag Bullet in the ungraded Osunitas Stakes last time out.

“A big credit to KK (Kimura),” D’Amato added. “He kept it moving at a great pace, saving all the ground (along the ramp) for the last quarter-mile.”

Kimura, who is sixth in the Del Mar jockey standings with 17 wins (though his winning percentage hovers around 10 percent), said he plans to return to Woodbine, near Toronto, after Del Mar ends and then bounce between Canada and California once the Santa Anita fall meet opens Sept. 27.

He will return to California with even higher expectations.

NOTABLE

• Juan Hernandez and Baffert lead the Del Mar jockey-trainer standings heading into the race. Hernandez has 44 wins to second-place Antonio Fresu’s 35 and Baffert has 22 to Doug O’Neill’s 18. Fresu has been named in 10 races and O’Neill has entered horses in seven.

• Stewards suspended jockey Kyle Frey for three days, Sept. 14, 15 and 20, for an incident Friday in the I’m Smokin Stakes in which Shea Brennan interfered with Style Cat. There was no disqualification because Shea Brennan finished third behind second-place Style Cat and winner Bodacious.

• None Above the Law is one of 13 nominations for the $75,000 EB Johnson Stakes at Los Alamitos on Saturday, Sept. 14. The 5-year-old gelding won the Bertrando Stakes in June at Los Al before finishing sixth in the Pacific Classic at Del Mar. Los Al hosts a thoroughbred meet from Friday, Sept. 13 through Sunday, Sept. 22, with racing Friday through Sunday.

Originally published: September 7, 2024 at 7:18 p.m.