Cistron & Air Strike Set For Rematch In Grade 1 Bing Crosby at Del Mar

A field of eight was entered Wednesday morning in Saturday's $300,000 Bing Crosby Stakes, the first of two Grade I stakes on the weekend and six overall at Del Mar Thoroughbred Club during the summer meeting.

The six-furlong main track event, which often determines the sprint champion of the meeting and is a "Win and You're In" qualifier for the Breeders' Cup Sprint, attracted Air Strike and Cistron, the 1-2 finishers from the Grade II Triple Bend at Santa Anita in May, and five runners shipping in from the Midwest or East.

Cistron, a 5-year-old Kentucky-bred owned by Hronis Racing, won the 6 ½-furlong Grade II Kona Gold at Santa Anita by 5 ½ lengths in April and was tagged near the wire by Air Strike in the Grade II Triple Bend there on May 25.

The last two starts, over the main track, were a change in surface from what the son of The Factor had experienced for most of his career.

"He's kinda found new life on the dirt," trainer John Sadler said. "He was running good race on grass and we switched him to the dirt and he won easily. He's a pretty versatile horse who has really found his form the last couple starts, so we'll keep him sprinting on the dirt.

`There's good spacing between his races and he has trained up for this one just super."

The field from the rail: Calexman (Geovanni Franco), Desert Law (Rafael Bejarano), Cistron (Victor Espinoza), Line Judge (Drayden Van Dyke), Air Strike (Norberto Arroyo, Jr.), Chief Cicatriz (Ruben Fuentes), Recruiting Ready (Flavien Prat) and Jalen Journey (Mike Smith).