The Grade 1, $300,000 Clement L. Hirsch Stakes will have its 51st running Sunday at Del Mar and seven high class fillies and mares have signed up to give it a go. The winner will earn an expenses-paid berth to the Breeders' Cup Distaff to be held at the track later this fall.
Three of the femmes have special credentials and will draw the most attention at the wickets and on the racetrack. The trio consists of Qatar Racing and Flurry Racing Stables' Shedaresthedevil, Tabor, Magnier and Smith's As Time Goes By, and Ciaglia Racing and Highland Yard's Venetian Harbor.
The mile and one-sixteenth main track headliner will go as the ninth of 10 races on the Sunday program, which has a first post of 2 p.m.
Shedaresthedevil has shipped in from the east coast to contest the Hirsch, which has been won by such top distaffers as Stellar Wind (twice), Beholder, Zenyatta (three times), Azeri (twice), and Paseana. The shipper races out of the red-hot barn of trainer Brad Cox and sports a record of seven wins in 14 starts and earnings of $1,867,318. The 4-year-old daughter of the More Than Ready sire Daredevil has won five graded stakes, including a pair of Grade 1s. She'll come with her regular rider, eastern-based Florent Geroux.
As Time Goes By is a bay filly by Triple Crown champion American Pharoah who'll be making the eighth start of her career. The Bob Baffert trainee was last out on May 22 in the Santa Maria Stakes at Santa Anita, a mile and one-sixteenth that she won by a nose. Hall of Famer Mike Smith is signed on to ride the multiple stakes winner of $380,600.
Venetian Harbor also comes into the Hirsch off a stakes victory, hers being the Grade 2 Monrovia at Santa Anita on June 5. It was her fourth overall victory and enhanced her bankroll to $633,400. The quick daughter of Munnings has primarily been sprinting and her speed could prove dangerous in the Hirsch. Trainer Richard Baltas has drafted Mario Gutierrez to handle the 4-year-old Sunday.
Here's the full field for the race in post position order with riders and morning line odds:
Benjamin and Sally Warren's Warren's Showtime (Juan Hernandez, 8-1); Michael Rosenmayer's Clockstrikestwelve (Kyle Frey, 30-1); As Time Goes By (8/5); Mathiesen Racing, Feghali or Mathis' Paige Anne (Flavien Prat, 15-1); 5th Street Stables, Saldana or Urbina's Cover Version (Abel Cedillo, 30-1); Venetian Harbor (2-1), and Shedaresthedevil (7/5).
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