Del Mar Picks | Cougar II Stakes 2024

Wertheimer & Frere’s Salesman, a long-winded gelding by the top European sire Dubawi, has been tabbed the 5/2 morning line favorite for the 73rd running of the Grade III Cougar II Stakes, the featured attraction on an eight-race card when racing resumes at Del Mar Thursday.

The mile and one-half main track test that carries a $100,000 purse has drawn a field of six and will go as Race 7 with a likely post time of 5 p.m.

First post for the Thursday card is 2 p.m.

Salesman, a 7-year-old bred by his owners in Ireland, has been trained for the last year and a half on the west coast by Richard Mandella after racing previously in France. He won a marathon on the Breeders’ Cup card at Santa Anita last November then went unplaced in the Santa Anita Handicap this past March in his only 2024 outing.

The veteran has been training forwardly for Mandella and may have found an ideal spot to show his best in the Cougar II.

The Cougar II has served as a stepping stone in years past for races like the Del Mar Handicap (a mile and three eighths on the grass) and the FanDuel Racing Pacific Classic (a mile and one quarter on the main). The connections of the Cougar II field could be looking either of those ways based on how things work out Thursday.

Here’s the full field (with riders) for the Del Mar Thursday headliner in post position order:

1. Valiant Ranches’ Calm Sea (Kyle Frey)
2. Jeffrey Sengara’s Midnight Mammoth (Armando Ayuso)
3. SF Racing, Starlight Racing and partners’ Reincarnate (Juan Hernandez)
4. Salesman (Kazushi Kimura)
5. Koentopp Racing’s Dual Threat (Edwin Maldonado)
6. Les Blake’s Clooney (Tiago Pereira)