Summer's Over: Saratoga And Del Mar Meets Come To A Close

As quickly as they arrived, the Saratoga and Del Mar meets have faded away into the 2012 racing calendar. Sadly, as happens every year, summer must eventually come to an end and the action at the Spa and the Surf moves on for the winter. And while the Del Mar and Saratoga meets are now over, there are plenty of performances for us to analyze as we move towards the end of the racing season.

Below is a summary of the graded stakes winners at Del Mar and Saratoga in 2012, along with the speed figures from Beyer, Bris and Equibase and some thoughts on the top performances.

Top rated races by speed figure system:

Del Mar Polytrack:

Beyer – Dullahan (111; Pacific Classic)
Bris – Dullahan / Include Me Out (104; Pacific Classic / Clement Hirsch)
Equibase – Richard’s Kid (114; Cougar II)

Del Mar Turf:

Beyer – Obviously (IRE) (104; Del Mar Mile Handicap)
Bris – Obviously (IRE) (103; Del Mar Mile Handicap)
Equibase – Acclamation (114; Eddie Read)

Saratoga Dirt:

Beyer: Fort Larned (110; Whitney)
Bris: Fort Larned / Emcee (109; Whitney / Forego)
Equibase: Fort Larned (123; Whitney)

Saratoga Turf:

Beyer: Wise Dan (108; Fourstardave)
Bris: Wise Dan (110; Fourstardave)
Equibase: Zagora (FR) (120; Ballston Spa)

The figure-makers from Beyer, Bris and Equibase were fairly consistent at Del Mar and Saratoga this summer, with some minor exceptions. Both Beyer and Bris have Dullahan’s Pacific Classic as the top Polytrack performance of the meet. (Bris also has Include Me Out’s Clement Hirsch win as the co-top Poly win.) Equibase rated Richard's Kid’s Cougar II win as its top performance with the Pacific Classic the 3^rd best. (The win by Fed Biz in the El Cajon was the 2^nd best Poly performance under Equibase.)

On the grass, Obviously (IRE) scored top marks from both Beyer and Bris, while Equibase gave Acclamation the best rating on the lawn. Obviously’s win came in as the 2^nd best Equibase figure of the meet.

On the bottom side of the figures, the juvenile races came back soft on almost every single system at Del Mar.

Over at Saratoga, the situation is similar; all three systems rate Fort Larned’s win in the Whitney as the best performance on the dirt during the meet, although Bris rates Emcee’s Forego equally as strong. On the grass, Wise Dan’s win in the Fourstardave is the top performance from Beyer and Bris while, once again, Equibase goes a different direction in tabbing Zagora’s win in the Ballston Spa as the top grass performance. Equibase rates Wise Dan’s Fourstardave as the third best grass performance behind Point of Entry’s win in the Sword Dancer.

On the bottom side of the leger, the juvenile races also rated on the soft side at Saratoga. In terms of older horses, Alpha’s win in the Jim Dandy was one of the weaker performances on the Beyer scale in dirt races, while Bris rated the win by Emma’s Encore in the Prioress as the lowest stakes effort on the dirt for non-juveniles. Equibase gave its lowest dirt stakes winning number to C C’s Pal in the Honorable Miss (98).