Today at Del Mar: Aug. 3, 2014

TODAY AT DEL MAR by Richard Eng

Post Time 2 p.m.

Race 1 - 6 1/2 furlongs, Purse $31,000, Claiming $25,000, 3-year-olds and up

6 Will True Up - Claimed by Robertino Diodoro after a stingy second at this class level; just needs one more step of improvement.

2 Advisory - Broke his maiden last year at Del Mar; this is a class drop and he is cutting back in distance.

Long Shot - 8 Run Hide

Race 2 - 1 1/16th miles, Purse $80,000, Optional claiming $62,500, Fillies and mares, 3-year-olds and up

1 Loveintheshadows - Turf race has been switched to the main track; has an outstanding synthetic record in NoCal.

6 Bee Brave - First time on synthetics, but has run well on grass; no turf racing for at least the next week.

Long Shot - 5 Love Blind

Race 3 - 1 mile, Purse $33,000, Claiming $16,000, 3-year-olds and up

3 Diamond of Blue - Rafael Bejarano is slowly regaining his top form; I thought he looked a little rusty the first week of the meet.

4 Graeme Crackerjack - Like the trainer switch to Philip D’Amato; top assistant to Mike Mitchell has hit the ground running.

Long Shot - 7 Dress Code

Race 4 - 6 1/2 furlongs, Purse $75,000, Maiden special weights, Cal-breds, Fillies and mares, 3-year-olds and up

6 Dutch Chocolate - Has only 2 career starts so expect some progress; logical chalk in a race lacking in substance.

8 Euroclydon - Like the cut back in distance; getting long in the tooth with 11 starts, but has 6 in the money finishes.

Long Shot - 5 Lirica Heat

Race 5 - 6 furlongs, Purse $38,000, Claiming $20,000, 3-year-olds

8 Green Tag - Sliding down the claiming ladder to this new career low; like the cutting back in distance too.

5 Saint Adelbert - Has a shot in clearly the most difficult race on the card; good placement in Pick 5 and Pick 6.

Long Shot - 3 Sudden Rumor

Race 6 - 5 1/2 furlongs, Purse $75,000, Maiden special weights, 2-year-olds

11 Remo - Taking a leap of faith that he will draw into the field; ran very well when second in strong career debut.

8 Life On Riviera - FTS from Peter Miller looks like a quick one; you’ll have a big edge over me in seeing tote action on the FTS.

Long Shot - 10 Cherokee Band

Race 7 - 1 mile, Purse $80,000, Optional claiming $62,500, 3-year-olds and up

1 Secretsatmidnight - Like the rail on the main track mile; short run to the first turn with a speedy sort like this.

6 Blue Tone - Raced well over Del Mar Polytrack last summer; Kent Desormeaux and Bob Hess are winning races like the old days.

Long Shot - 8 Patrioticandproud

Race 8 - 6 1/2 furlongs, $200,000 Best Pal, 2-year-olds

6 Henry’s Holiday - Have felt that this colt will get better as he runs farther; plus Tyler Baze is a new daddy, karma in the stakes.

1 Story to Tell - Logical chalk was dead game in winning the Proctor; don’t like this rail here, but he’ll improve with distance also.

Long Shot - 4 Bad Read Sanchez

Race 9 - 1 mile, Purse $75,000, Maiden special weights, 3-year-olds and up

6 Clickjab - No more turf for a while so this colt switches to synthetics; interesting move to Corey Nakatani, good value.

8 Alamo - Logical chalk ran greenly in debut, slow early, fast late; suspect will enjoy the extra ground and slower internal pace.

Long Shot - 5 Noble Bird

Best Bet - 6 Henry’s Holiday (race 8)

Del Mar Sunday - Picks/Winners/Mutuels, 17/6/$37.60; Long Shots, 9/2/$24.40; Best Bet, 1/1/$4.20

Del Mar Totals - 229/50/$350.60; Long Shots, 112/11/$109.80; Best Bets, 11/2/$10.80

SIMULCAST PLAY OF THE DAY - #7 Partley Mocha (7/2) in race 2 at Saratoga. For scoring purposes, we’ll make a hypothetical $2 win, place and show bet, $6 total. On Saturday, Tapiture won at Mountaineer Park paying $5.60 to win, $2.60 to place and $2.20 to show. Stats - 119/71/$679.60; Follow him on Twitter: @richeng4propick