A stakes tripleheader – highlighted by the 72nd running of the Grade 1, $300,000 Del Mar Debutante for 2-year-old fillies – is on tap for Saturday at Del Mar, the penultimate day of the seaside track's 2022 summer racing season.
Joining the Debutante on the black type list are the 65th edition of the Grade 2, $250,000 John C. Mabee Stakes for fillies and mares and the $100,000 Del Mar Juvenile Fillies Turf.
The stakes trio will be run back-to-back-to-back with the Juvenile Fillies Turf as Race 7, the Debutante as Race 8 and the Mabee as Race 9. They're part of an 11-race card with a first post of 1 p.m.
The Debutante, which is contested at seven furlongs out of the chute on the main track, has drawn eight promising fillies for what is considered the meet's championship race for their bracket.
Not surprisingly, Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert – a specialist with young horses who has won the Debutante 10 times previously, including the last three runnings – has the race's solid favorite at 9/5 in Pegram, Watson and Weitman's Home Cooking, who'll have the saddle services of Hall of Fame rider Mike Smith. He'll also saddle Fast and Shiny, owned by the same trio.
In the Mabee, which goes at nine furlongs on the grass out of Del Mar's diagonal infield chute, there are seven older distaffers topped by the win machine out of the Phil D'Amato barn named Going Global, who races for the owner grouping of Dubb, Gevertz or Nentwig and partners. The 4-year-old Irish-bred bay – who has won nine of her 15 starts and just shy of a million dollars — will have turf ace Umberto Rispoli in the saddle and has been hung a stout 4/5 morning line favorite.
The Juvenile Fillies Turf, which is being held for the 11th time Saturday, has lured a collection of 11 young lassies all looking for their first stakes victory. The race is seen as a stepping stone to the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf, which will be run at Keeneland in Kentucky this year in early November. That race carries a $1-million purse.
The morning line favorite at 5/2 in Del Mar's version of the race is De Seroux or Naify's Havana Angel, an import from Europe who'll be making her U.S. bow for trainer Leonard Powell. Del Mar's leading rider, Juan Hernandez, has the call.
The Debutante's Home Cooking was a galloping winner of her second start on August 21 at Del Mar, drawing off late to score by more than nine lengths in a five and a half furlong straight maiden affair. She's by the A.P. Indy sire Honor Code and fetched $260,000 at a 2-year-old in training sale earlier this year.
Chief threats to the top one look to be Aldabbagh, Cady or Leatherman's Vegas Magic, winner of Del Mar's Sorrento Stakes at six furlongs on August 13 and Peter Redekop's And Tell Me Nolies, a game winner of a straight maiden race locally on August 14. Abel Cedillo rides Vegas Magic, while Ramon Vazquez handles “Nolies.”
Here's the field for the Debutant from the rail out with riders and morning line odds: Vegas Magic (3-1); Exline-Border Racing's Kissed by Fire (Joe Bravo, 8-1); And Tell Me Nolies (3-1); The Del Mar Group's Satin Doll (Kyle Frey, 20-1); Fast and Shiny (Hernandez, 8-1); Home Cooking; J Stables' Arella Star (Hector Berrios, 15-1), and Perry and Ramona Bass' Ice Dancing (Flavien Prat, 8-1).
The Mabee field from the rail out will look like this: Going to Vegas (Prat, 5/2); Kaleem Shah's Bellamore (Bravo, 20-1); Convergence Stable and Madaket Stables' Avenue de France (Hernandez, 6-1); Hronis Racing's Park Avenue (Berrios, 6-1); Going Global; Agave Racing Stable and partners' Burgoo Alley (Vazquez, 12-1), and Reddam Racing's Eddie's New Dream (Mario Gutierrez, 15-1).
The lineup for the Juvenile Fillies Turf from the rail out shapes up as follows: Roadrunner Racing or Evenson's Cahuilla (Ryan Curatolo, 20-1); Tommy Town Thoroughbreds' Sally's Sassy (Ricky Gonzalez, 12-1); Barber or Pell's Candy Carmel (Berrios, 12-1); R Unicorn Stable's Excelia (Vazquez, 8-1); CYBT, Aldabbagh, Nentwig or Pagano's Thebestisyettobe (Prat, 4-1); Havana Angel; Little Red Feather Racing and Sterling Stable's Comanche Country (Rispoli, 3-1); Roncelli Family Trust and Roney's Queenzy (Smith, 8-1); Brown, Klein or Lebherz's Sell the Dream (Cedillo, 6-1); Haagsma, Hallmark or Vanderdussen's Court Snort (Gutierrez, 20-1), and West Coast Stables' Pride of the Nile (Frey, 20-1).
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