Tempus Phone conversation (Benoit photo)
Leonard Powell trainee wins by ¾ of a length in 12th view of the $100,000 stake on opening day at Del Mar
Del Mar Press
DEL MAR, Calif. – In his deployment debut for coach Leonard Powell Time flies (10-1) was off the pace to beat even money favorite Friendly Confines to score by ¾ lengths in the $100,000 Let It Ride Stakes for three-year-olds at a mile on grass. The 16-day Bing Crosby Meet At Del Mar 2025 started on Thursday.
Breaking post position two in a field of seven horses with Mirco Demuroaboard Tempus Volat and Friendly boundaries As Flavien Prat battled for the early lead into quarter pole, Friendly Confines eventually seized the lead, posting splits of 22.65, 46.38, 1:11.13, with Demuro and Tempus Volat following in third Mescalero and Umberto Rispoli. At the top of the stretch, Tempus waved goodbye to Volat and kicked away from the early pacesetter to stop the clock in 1:35.31.
“He is a good young horse and he feels very comfortable when he is not at the pace, like today. Mirco Demuro said: “He is a good horse to ride because he will do what you ask him.”
Friendly Confines was just held up by a nose after a late surge from third place Lyle the crocodile (5-1) with Irad Ortiz, Jr. upwards.
“We definitely wanted to be close because we had a good post position. We wanted to get the most out of it. I was happy to see Flavien (Prat) in the lead because he is a smart jockey.” said Leonard Powell. “Both Flavien and Mirco (Demuro) rode good races and our horse was the best. He is from Not This Time and his horses get better with age. He came to me early in the summer and every race he gets better and better.”
Never worse than third in three starts since moving to the Powell barn this summer, Tempus Volat has improved his record to 6-2-1-2 with $142,058 in earnings for Sondereker Racing LLC.
Tempus Volat returned $23.40, $5.40 and $3.60 to his backers; Friendly Confines, trained by Richard Baltas, paid $2.40, $2.10. Lyle The Crocodile, trained by Phil D’Amato, paid $3.80 to show.
Early first post for a 10-race card Breeders’ Cup Future Stars Friday is 11:35 a.m. and gates open at 9:30 a.m.
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