Jockey Kent Desormeaux will ride Billy Big in the Del Mar Juvenile Turf on Saturday.
The sixth race on Saturday’s Del Mar card is the fifth running of the Del Mar Juvenile Turf, a one-mile grass event which drew a field of 14 colts/geldings.
Big Score, from Tim Yakteen’s barn, is the 7-2 morning-line favorite off a nice 2 ¾-length win at this distance over this course in his debut. The son of owner/breeder George Krikorian’s stallion Mr. Big will have hot jockey Flavien Prat aboard once again.
Little Red Feather’s Irish-bred Billy Big began his career across the pond in Ireland, but had to come to America to break his maiden, which he did in his fourth career start but first stateside. He’s in good hands with trainer Phil D’Amato and jockey Kent Desormeaux, so he’s probably going to take some action at the windows.
D’Amato sends Bowies Hero out as his trainer for the first time after the Artie Schiller colt won by 5 ¾ lengths at Lone Star last out. He’s in the big leagues now, but he seems to have the ability to be a serious contender.
The Del Mar Juvenile Turf will leave the gate at 4:31 p.m. EDT.
California native and lifelong horsewoman Margaret Ransom is a graduate of the University of Arizona’s Race Track Industry Program. She got her start in racing working in the publicity departments at Calder Race Course and Hialeah Park, as well as in the racing office at Gulfstream Park in South Florida. She then spent six years in Lexington, KY, at BRISnet.com, where she helped create and develop the company’s popular newsletters: Handicapper’s Edge and Bloodstock Journal. After returning to California, she served six years as the Southern California news correspondent for BloodHorse, assisted in the publicity department at Santa Anita Park and was a contributor to many other racing publications, including HorsePlayer Magazine and Trainer Magazine. She then spent seven years at HRTV and HRTV.com in various roles as researcher, programming assistant, producer and social media and marketing manager.
She has also walked hots and groomed runners, worked the elite sales in Kentucky for top-class consignors and volunteers for several racehorse retirement organizations, including CARMA.
In 2016, Margaret was the recipient of the prestigious Stanley Bergstein Writing Award, sponsored by Team Valor, and was an Eclipse Award honorable mention for her story, “The Shocking Untold Story of Maria Borell,” which appeared on USRacing.com. The article and subsequent stories helped save 43 abandoned and neglected Thoroughbreds in Kentucky and also helped create a new animal welfare law known as the “Borell Law.”
Margaret’s very first Breeders’ Cup was at Hollywood Park in 1984 and she has attended more than half of the Breeders’ Cups since. She counts Holy Bull and Arrogate as her favorite horses of all time. She lives in Pasadena with her longtime beau, Tony, two Australian Shepherds and one Golden Retriever.
