(Edited Del Mar Thoroughbred Club report)

DEL MAR, Calif. – Green Lantern Stables’ classy Gotta Have Her, a six-year-old mare whose middle name should be “consistency,” scored her second straight triumph in Del Mar’s Grade 2 $150,000 Palomar Handicap with a typically game performance Monday.

Sent to the gate as the even-money favorite in a field of five older fillies and mares, Gotta Have Her and jockey Mike Smith forged a neck victory over 11-1 longshot Go Forth North, with 9-5 second choice Lilly Fa Pootz third another half-length away.

Well-placed from the start of the mile and one-sixteenth grass race, Gotta Have Her swept to the lead in the upper stretch and appeared to be toying with her rivals coming to the wire. The daughter of Royal Academy ran the distance in 1:42.39, slower than the 1:40.67 recorded by her in 2009 because of a dawdling early pace Monday set by You Lift Me Up and jockey Patrick Valenzuela who stepped the first quarter in :26.24 and a half-mile in 50:04.  

“I was worried about hitting the front too soon. You don’t want to do that with her. She’ll pull herself up. I was worried about (trainer Jerry) Hollendorfer’s other mare (Lilly Fa Pootz) coming and getting us. But it worked out fine. I like riding ones like her (Gotta Have Her). This is my kind of race,” Smith said.

Gotta Have Her, trained throughout her career by Jenine Sahadi, scored her tenth victory in 29 starts and first money of  $90,000 increased her earnings to $1,092,608.

“It was a weird race. I was concerned when I saw the 26 (seconds for first quarter). I knew they were going slow and she doesn’t have a real huge turn of foot. As long as she can just gallop along, she’s fine. Mike apologized for getting to the front too soon. I’m really proud of her. She’s really special,” Sahadi said.

She paid $4, $3 and $2.10; runner-up Go Forth North returned $5.80 and $2.60, while Lilly Fa Pootz paid $2.10 to show.

The stakes win was the fourth of the meet for Smith, but his first in the Palomar. He now has 32 stakes wins at Del Mar.

The stakes win was the first of the meet for Sahadi and her second in the Palomar. She won this same race with the same horse last year. She now has 15 stakes wins at Del Mar.

In the supporting feature, the $100,000 I’m Smokin Stakes for California-bred two-year-olds, 3-5 favored Bench Points and Rafael Bejarano got up in the final strides to win by a half-length in 1:10.28 for the six furlongs on the main track.

Swiss Tart, a 27-1 outsider, was second, a head in front of third-place Lucky Mr. K in the field of ten juveniles.

“Through the lane he wouldn’t change leads and I knew something wasn’t quite right. But I had so much horse under me I just let him go on and do what he was doing. I didn’t push on him or hit him; I just let him run. After the race we saw he’d lost a shoe. Left front. He was running relaxed and I was real comfortable in the first part. Then the last part his talent took over. He’s just a nice horse,” Bejarano said.
 
Bench Points, representing a partnership including Joanne Buss, wife of Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss, and trained by Tim Yakteen, paid $3.10, $2.80 and $2.20 after scoring his third win in as many starts. He won the Graduation Stakes a month ago at Del Mar. First money of $60,000 swelled the Benchmark colt’s  bankroll to $144,600.

“He was a little fresher today than he has been, but it worked out fine. He got bumped around a little bit at the break and he lost his shoe, but he came running at the end. We’ll look at the Norfolk (Stakes at Oak Tree on Oct. 2). It’s time to test open races,” Yakteen said.
 
Swiss Tart paid $13.40 and $7, while Lucky Mr. K returned $5.60 to show.

Bench Points provided Bejarano with his second win of the afternoon, equaling the output of his rival, Rosario, for the afternoon. Bejarano came back to win the tenth race aboard Russian River for his third win Monday and now leads Rosario, 54-53, with only Wednesday remaining of the 2010 Del Mar meeting.

This was Yakteen’s second stakes win of the meeting, both with Bench Points in Cal-bred races. It is his first win in the I’m Smokin and he now has three stakes wins at Del Mar.

Labor Day Monday’s attendance was 13,060.