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BATTLE OF THE SEXES: JULIE KRONE vs PATRICK VALENZUELA - 9/7/03


Sixty-five years after SEABISCUIT beat LIGAROTI by a nose in a match race that raised Del Mar's visibility, the track staged this $50,000 race over 1-1/16 miles. The reasoning - it's tough drawing fans after Labor Day and on the opening Sunday of the NFL season. The last match race at Del Mar was in 1994, when SOVIET PROBLEM defeated MAMSELLE BEBETTE by 61/2 lengths in a battle of 4-year-old fillies.
With 2003 being the summer of SEABISCUIT, the matchup originally was aimed to capitalize on Gary Stevens' fame - who starred as jockey George Woolf in the movie "SEABISCUIT," by having him take on Julie Krone, who'd spent her first summer at Del Mar. But after Stevens was hurt in a fall at the end of the Arlington Million three weeks before the match race, veteran rider Valenzuela stepped in to replace him.
Although Del Mar didn't get the marquee matchup, it did at least end up with the meeting's top two jockeys. They had been duking it out all summer, and Valenzuela led Krone by four victories going into the day of the match race.
Re-live the eventful and exhilerating, "Battle of the Sexes" 2003 match race in which Valenzuela would start from the rail aboard CHESTER'S CHOICE - trained by Summer Mayberry and Krone aboard Bob Baffert's WOKE UP DREAMIN, who replaced the injured OOPSTHEREGOES. Both three-year-old colts had just one lifetime victory each going into the race, they'd be carrying 118 pounds and would be in for a claiming price of $300,000. The winner of the match race would get $35,000 and the loser $15,000.
(21 Minutes)
Listing Info: | |
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Listing ID: | 1252 |
Format(s) Available: | DVD And VHS |
Category: | U.S. & Canadian Flat Racing |