Del Mar Picks 11/28/25

Del Mar Closing Weekend — Friday, November 28

We’ve reached closing weekend of the Del Mar fall meet, and we kick things

off with a Friday card that offers several challenging races. While the fields aren’t easy, we did find a few spots where some runners stand out on top.

Let’s dig into the Friday card and break down our selections for November 28th at Del Mar.

Race 2 — $5,000 Claiming

This is one of the lower-level claiming races you’ll find at Del Mar, and as always at this level, form can be a bit chaotic. Still, the scratch of Be Punctual makes things clearer and gives a big boost to my top choice, #1 Contrary Chieftain, the 5–2 morning-line favorite.

Trained by Tim McCanna, this 6-year-old gelding drops in class from the $16,000 level. He ran for $12,500 at Del Mar over the summer and finished a strong second behind Joint Venture, who came right back to win next out—always a positive sign.

In a race where anything can happen, I’m siding with the class dropper who has already shown he can run well on this circuit.

#1 Contrary Chieftain looks poised to get the job done in this “crapshoot” of a spot.

Exacta Plays: 1 over 4 and 6 and reverse 4 and 6 over the 1

Race 9 — #4 Glorious Life (ML 7-2)To close out Friday’s card, I’m siding with #4 Glorious Life, a consistent 5-year-old gelding trained by Carla Gaines. He went off as the post-time favorite in his most recent start and continues to run well for his breeder and owner, Harris Farms.

Glorious Life has shown reliability throughout his career with 7 starts and 5 in-the-money finishes, and he owns a win over the Del Mar turf, which is always an important box to check at this meet. If he can return to the form he showed two races back, he should be right in the mix late and has every chance to land in the winner’s circle.

Exacta Plays:• 4 over 10-2-5• Reverse: 10-2-5 over 4

R1 - 2 -9-3-4-7-10-5

R2- 1/ 4-6

R3- 9-5-6-3-2

R4- 6-2-4-1

R5- 8-3-2-4-5

R6- 2-6-1-4

R7- 7-8-3

R8- 2-3-7-1-8-9

R9- 4/10-2-5

Early Pick 5

2-9-3-4-7-10

1

9-5-6-3

6-2-4

8-3-2

Late Pick 5 -

8-3-2-4-5

2-6-1-4

7-8-3

2-3-7-1

4