Massive mandatory-payout carryovers at Churchill, Del Mar

The final day of November is also the final day of 2025 racing at Churchill Downs and Del Mar. That means the mandatory payout of two massive carryovers.

At Churchill Downs, a $451,889 carryover in the 20-cent Derby City 6 is slated for dispersal. At Del Mar, a $329,973 carryover in the 50-cent Early Pick 5 must be paid out.

Churchill Downs: Race 7: $451,889 Pick 6 carryover mandatory payout

The six-race Derby City 6 sequence is packed with large fields. Assembling a winning ticket won’t be easy.

If you’re looking for a single to build tickets around, our best recommendation is #3 Tap Into This (2-1) in Race 10, a seven-furlong $100,000 allowance optional claimer. The son of Tapit has improved by leaps and bounds in recent starts for Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen. He’s won three starts in a row and exits a 2 1/2-length triumph in an $80,000 allowance optional claimer sprinting about seven furlongs at Keeneland.

That win was fast on the clock and earned Tap Into This a career-best 103 Brisnet Speed rating. That’s the highest number recently posted by any horse entered in Race 10. Only #5 Three Technique (12-1) and #9 Two Eagles River (6-1) have run faster, earning numbers as high as 104, but neither has cracked the triple-digit plateau in their last 10 starts apiece.

If Tap Into This repeats or improves upon his Keeneland performance, he can score a fourth straight win and help us hit the Derby City 6.

Del Mar: Race 1: $329,973 Pick 5 carryover mandatory payout

The feature event in the Early Pick 5 sequence is Race 3, the Cecil B. DeMille (G3) for two-year-olds racing one mile on turf. It’s also the best spot to seek a single.

#7 Hey Nay Nay (7-5) won his first three starts for hot trainer John Sadler, including the five-furlong Tyro S. and one-mile Del Mar Juvenile Turf (G3). In the latter race, he defeated the future Grade 1-placed Plutarch by 1 1/2 lengths.

Hey Nay Nay subsequently faltered in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf (G1), finishing 10th. But he was in contention until the eighth pole and was beaten only 7 1/2 lengths in the end. Returning to the Grade 3 level for the Cecil B. DeMille should be all Hey Nay Nay needs to deliver victory under Eclipse Award-winning jockey Flavien Prat.

Good luck!