GOING GLOBAL RETURNS IN GRADE 2 YELLOW RIBBON

Going Global, the top 3-year old filly on the grounds at Del Mar's 2021 summer meet, returns to the seaside oval and faces six rivals in the G2 Yellow Ribbon Handicap on Saturday, August 13.

Last year, Going Global finished second to Madone in the G2 San Clemente before running off with a popular win in the G1 Del Mar Oaks and earning end of the meet honors.

The Irish-bred daughter of Mehmas, out of the Invasor mare, Wrood, is owned by a partnership headed by Michael Dubb and, according to trainer Phil D'Amato, doing very well leading up to the race.

"She likes Del Mar," D'Amato says. "She's been training very well here on the turf course and I'm excited to run her."

Going Global has run twice this year, winning the G2 Royal Heroine at Santa Anita in her 4-year old debut in April then finishing third behind Ocean Road and new stablemate Going to Vegas in the G1 Gamely on Memorial Day.

"She was in tight in certain spots and I think it compromised her chance late," D'Amato says of her race in the Gamely. "She still had free run at them but was in between horses. She fought valiantly but it wasn't her day."

Flavien Prat rode Going Global in the Gamely but trainer Phil D'Amato will stick with his hot hand in the Yellow Ribbon, jockey Umberto Rispoli.

"Prat's done nothing wrong on her," D'Amato notes. "The only reason he's not back up is that he's at Saratoga. Umberto has won on her and he knows her well enough and Umberto and I are doing real well here so far."

Rispoli was on D'Amato's pair of stakes winners earlier in the summer meet, Balnikhov in the Oceanside on opening day and Bellabel in the G2 San Clemente.

Last year, Going Global skipped the Breeders' Cup, the connections choosing instead to run her in the G2 Goldikova at Del Mar on the Breeders' Cup undercard. It proved a wise choice as she won handily. They brought her back for the G1 American Oaks on Santa Anita's opening day but she ran sixth.

"We'll take it race by race," D'Amato says. "That's (the Breeders' Cup) probably our goal at the end of the year but she's gotta get us there and earn her way into the race."

Hronis Racing's Park Avenue is back from Texas to contend in the Yellow Ribbon. The daughter of Quality Road won the Ouija Board Distaff at Lone Star Park at the end of May. This will be her first race since returning to California.

The horse Park Avenue beat that day, Benowitz Family Trust et al's Avenue de France is also entered in the Yellow Ribbon. She's already won at the summer meet, capturing the $100,000 Osunitas opening weekend and encouraging trainer Leonard Powell to take the step up. She'll be ridden by leading jockey Juan Hernandez.

Shipping in for the Yellow Ribbon will be G. Watts Humphrey Jr's Flippant, winner of the $100,000 Indiana General Assembly Distaff at Horseshoe Indiana last month.

The Yellow Ribbon, a longtime staple of Southern California stakes racing dating back to 1976, will be run as the sixth race on the 10-race Saturday card at Del Mar.

The field from the rail with jockeys: Avenue de France; Going Global; Javanica (Drayden Van Dyke); Rocking Redhead (Hector Berrios); Park Avenue (Victor Espinoza); Burgoo Alley (Ramon Vasquez) and Flippant (Joe Bravo).

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