Del Mar news: Espinoza comes ‘full circle’ a year after injury – Horse Racing Nation

The victory by Hall of Fame jockey Victor Espinoza on Cistron in Saturday’s Bing Crosby Stakes (G1) was his fourth in that race and 98th in his Del Mar career. Espinoza, 47, needs two more stakes to not only reach the 100 mark but also tie the retired Gary Stevens for third on the track’s all-time list.

Beyond the numbers, of greater significance, it was Espinoza’s first Del Mar stakes victory since 2017, as virtually his entire 2018 campaign was wiped out by a career-threatening neck injury in a training accident.

“Victor was extremely happy and I was too,” his agent, Brian Beach, said Sunday morning. “After all the work he’s done to come back, to see things come full circle one week after the anniversary of the accident, and win a Grade 1 stake at Del Mar, which has always been his favorite track … It was perfect.”

Espinoza fell July 22, 2018, when a stakes-winning horse he was working collapsed. Following a lengthy rehab, he returned to the races in February.

“Life is interesting, isn’t it?” Espinoza said Saturday. “How things happen; how they unfold. One thing I learned early in my career, you don’t give up. You don’t ever give up. And when I win a race, I enjoy it so much. Each win is special.”

VASILIKA WORKS FOR YELLOW RIBBON; HOLLENDORFER’S BACK

Vasilika, the $40,000 claim that has turned into one of the top female turf runners in the country, went six furlongs on the Jimmy Durante Turf Course in her final work for the Grade 2, $200,000 Yellow Ribbon Handicap here next Saturday.

Under exercise rider Edgar Rodriguez, Vasilika was timed in 1:14.20 as the only turf worker at the distance with splits of :25.40 and :37.60.

Hall of Fame trainer Jerry Hollendorfer, who claimed the 5-year-old, Kentucky-bred daughter of Skipshot in February of 2018 and is a part-owner of the mare, was on hand to watch the exercise on his first day at the track since a legal victory Friday in a San Diego courtroom.

Superior Court judge Ronald Frazier granted a preliminary injunction allowing Hollendorfer to return to work pending arbitration of bans imposed by The Stronach Group at Santa Anita in June and carried over by the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club.

Back at his customary stable area Sunday morning, Hollendorfer expressed the belief that the judge had rendered the correct decision. He said it felt “good” to be back at the track and around people and horses that have made up a major part of his life for four decades as a trainer and 10 years before that as a stable worker.

But things have certainly changed.

“It’s not business as usual,” Hollendorfer said. “I have 17 horses where last year I had 50.”

CLOSERS – Selected works from 217 on dirt and 26 on turf officially timed Sunday morning: Dirt – Nolo Contesto (5f, 1:02.00), Roadster (5f, 1:03.40); Turf – Elysea’s World (4f, :49.20), Jasikan (4f, :50.40), Majestic Eagle (4f, :50.60), Rijeka (4f, :49.20), Toinette (4f, :50.20), Gregorian Chant (5f, 1:01.40), Kingly (4f, 1:00.60), Vasilika (6f, 1:14.20).