Seven Cal-Breds To Tussle In Real Good Deal

DEL MAR, CA – Seven 3-year-old California-bred runners will face off at 7 furlongs Friday at Del Mar in the 34th edition of the Real Good Deal Stakes. The dash carries a husky purse of $175,000.

The race is 1 of 8 Del Mar will hold this summer as part of the 2021 Golden State Series – 36 races in all at 5 of the state’s race tracks worth more than $4.3 million. To run in them, you must be a California-bred or sired race horse.

Heading the lineup is Fetkin, Sondereker, or Thornburgh, et al’s The Chosen Vron, a gelding by the stallion Vronsky who has won 4 of his 5 lifetime starts, including 3 stakes – 2 of them graded – in his most recent starts. The chestnut racer will once again have the saddle services of Umberto Rispoli as they break from the rail in the extended dash.

One of the threats to The Chosen Vron appears to be Downstream Racing’s None Above the Law, a gray stretch runner sired by Karakontie. The gelding won a pair of grass stakes at Golden Gate Fields this spring, then just missed in the Snow Chief Stakes at Santa Anita in June. Leading rider Flavin Prat has the call Friday.

Top Harbor ships in from Northern California for the dash. The Tim McCanna trainee has been running with stakes company of late and was close on a pair of occasions. The colt by Harbor the Gold likes to do his running late.

Here’s the complete field for the sprint from the rail out with riders and morning line odds: The Chosen Vron (6/5); Reddam Racing’s Found My Ball (Mario Gutierrez, 15/1); Jarnig, Marshall or Schweiger’s Top Harbor (Tiago Periera, 3/1); Little Red Feather Racing’s Atomic Drop (Abel Cedillo, 4/1); Brown, Klein or Lebherz’s Letsgetlucky (Joe Bravo, 8/1); None Above the Law (6-1), and Brown, Klein or Lebherz’s Touchdown Brown (Trevor McCarthy, 12/1).

First post Friday is a 4 PM.