Old Topper Ends Drought With Victory

DEL MAR — Favored Old Topper provided trainer Noble Threewitt with his first graded stakes victory since Devoted Brass won the Swaps in 1993, posting a one-length victory over an unlucky King Of The Wild in the $108,825 Best Pal Stakes on Wednesday.

Old Topper, a troubled second in the Hollywood Juvenile Championship behind K.O. Punch last month, ran down King Of The Wild, who broke last in the field of eight 2-year-olds. King Of The Wild rushed up to draw clear after a half-mile and into the stretch, but Old Topper pulled in front in the final yards to win in 1:16 2/5 for the 6 1/2 furlongs.

Trained by Threewitt, 86, for owner Barbara Hunter and ridden by Alex Solis, the chestnut son of Gilded Time won for the second time in five starts and will return in the $250,000 Del Mar Futurity on Sept. 10, the meeting’s final day.

King Of The Wild, the fourth choice at nearly 6-1, was three lengths clear of Souvenir Copy. Then came Meadow Prayer, Cat Doctor, Thingamajig, Tryumphant and Majorbigtimesheet, who was pulled up in the stretch by jockey Pat Valenzuela but was walked off the track.

Horse Racing Notes

Funeral services will be held Friday morning in Milton, Mass., for Helen McCarron, 74, the mother of jockey Chris McCarron. She died Tuesday after a lengthy illness.