Grade I winner Defunded, who skipped a shot at the Breeders' Cup, kept it rolling with a popular score in the GIII Native Diver S. Sunday at Del Mar.
A second-out graduate last March at Santa Anita, the gelding was fourth in both the GI Runhappy Santa Anita Derby and GIII Pat Day Mile S. before running second in the GIII Affirmed S. and GIII Los Alamitos Derby. Scoring a pair of blowout allowance/optional claiming victories, he was a hard-fought runner-up in the GI Hollywood Gold Cup S. May 30, but finished off the board in the GII San Diego H. and GII Pat O'Brien S. here this summer.
Going wire to wire to capture the GI Awesome Again S. last out Oct. 1 in Arcadia, the chestnut was knocked down to odds-on in this spot and broke awkwardly. Soon rushing up to press the pace three wide, Defunded moved into second past a :23.62 quarter and drew alongside the longshot pacesetter through a sharp half in :46.41. Poking his head in front five-sixteenths out, the favorite kicked clear into the lane and bounded away to score as much the best, well ahead of stablemate Azul Coast.
“He came away from there a little bit slow, but I wasn't concerned. This horse doesn't need to be in front,” said winning rider Edwin Maldonado. “He's won from off the pace before. I rode him with confidence all the way. On the [far] turn he wanted to lean on the horse inside us, but I got him going straight and it all worked out from there.”
“Edwin said Defunded was kind of wanting to sit back and when that happens and they sit back when the gate opens, then you're going the wrong way,” added Jimmy Barnes, assistant to winning trainer Bob Baffert. “Luckily they were going slow enough he was able to recover and get back in a good position. He's always had talent. It's just that he's been a little aggressive in the paddock on us at times. But he went through the paddock good, he went to the gate good so maybe we've got him straightened out.”
Pedigree Notes:
One of 22 stakes winners, eight graded stakes winners and three Grade I winners for Darby Dan's Dialed In, Defunded is the third black-type performer out of her four-time stakes-placed dam, a daughter of a SW Wind Tunnel. That mare is a half to GSW Reunited (Dixie Union), who produced MGISW Code of Honor (Noble Mission {GB}). Bought by the winner's breeder for $37,000 at Keeneland November in 2016, Wind Caper has an unraced 3-year-old Maclean's Music filly, an unraced juvenile Lookin At Lucky filly named Capital Lights and a yearling full-sister to the winner named Ringy Dingy who sold to Oracle Bloodstock for $200,000 at Fasig-Tipton October.
Sunday, Del Mar
NATIVE DIVER S.-GIII, $150,500, Del Mar, 11-27, 3yo/up,
1 1/8m, 1:50.12, ft.
1–DEFUNDED, 125, g, 4, by Dialed In
1st Dam: Wind Caper (MSP, $194,286), by Touch Gold
2nd Dam: Wind Tunnel, by Summer Squall
3rd Dam: Tivli, by Mt. Livermore
($210,000 Ylg '19 KEESEP). O-Michael E. Pegram, Karl Watson & Paul Weitman; B-Athens Woods LLC (KY); T-Bob Baffert; J-Edwin A. Maldonado. $90,000. Lifetime Record: GISW, 13-5-3-1, $608,100. *1/2 to Lookin At Roses (Lookin At Lucky), SP, $251,910. Werk Nick Rating: A+++. *Triple Plus*. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree or free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.
2–Azul Coast, 121, h, 5, Super Saver–Sky Treasure, by Sky Mesa. ($150,000 Wlg '17 KEENOV; $320,000 Ylg '18 KEESEP). O-Michael E. Pegram, Karl Watson & Paul Weitman; B-SF Bloodstock LLC (KY); T-Bob Baffert. $30,000.
3–Newgrange, 120, c, 3, Violence–Bella Chianti, by Empire Maker. ($125,000 Ylg '20 KEESEP; $325,000 3yo '22 FTKHRA). O-David A. Bernsen, LLC, Little Red Feather Racing & Rockingham Ranch; B-Jack Mandato & Black Rock Thoroughbreds (KY); T-Philip D'Amato. $18,000.
Margins: 4 3/4, 3/4, 1 3/4. Odds: 0.70, 8.30, 4.90.
Also Ran: Go Joe Won, Tizamagician, Parnelli. Click for the Equibase.com chart or the TJCIS.com PPs. VIDEO, sponsored by TVG.
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