A close third heading into the far turn, the Bob Hess Jr. conditioned Cairo Memories set sail for home leaving the quarter pole and was never threatened through the lane en route to a 2 ¼-length score in Sunday's $200,000 Surfer Girl Stakes at Santa Anita in Arcadia, Calif. Ridden by Kent Desormeaux, the 2-year-old filly by Cairo Prince got one mile on turf in 1:34.27 and will now likely start in the $1 million Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf on Nov. 5 at Del Mar.
“She's been doing everything right,” said Hess. “We were encouraged by the way she broke her maiden and she's been moving forward in her training. Hopefully, this sets us up for the Breeders' Cup dance.”
A 4 ½-length one mile maiden turf winner in her debut Sept. 5, Cairo Memories was the second choice in a field of 11 at 4-1 and paid $10.00, $4.60 and $3.00.
“She brought some new energy from her first start,” said Desormeaux. “I think she was excited. I spent more time in the post parade calming her down…I worked her at Del Mar and before I ever rode her I thought she was great…I was with the owners in the paddock and that was the longest wait because I wanted to see how deep the water was, and she's shown (now) that she could really swim.”
Owned by David Bernsen, LLC and Schroeder Farms, LLC, Cairo Memories, who is out of the Indian Charlie mare Incarnate Memories, picked up $120,000 for the win, hiking her earnings to $162,000.
The 3-2 favorite with Flavien Prat, Irish-bred Helens Well rallied from next to last to finish second by a neck over Hemmerle and paid $3.00 and $2.40.
Off at 12-1 with Joe Bravo, Hemmerle was out-run late to finish third by a neck over Irish-bred Sterling Crest and paid $5.40 to show.
Fractions on the race were 22.14, 45.72, 1:10 flat and 1:22.26.
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