The 53rd edition of the Grade II San Clemente Stakes – a key stepping stone to the Grade I Del Mar Oaks on August 22 – goes Saturday at Del Mar and has drawn a competitive field of 11 3-year-old fillies for the one-mile test on the lawn.
The likely favorite in the $150,000 San Clemente is Gary Barber's Laura's Light, a bay daughter of the hot young sire Constitution who has won four of her six lifetime starts and comes into the turfer off a tally in the Grade III Honeymoon Stakes at Santa Anita on May 30. That race was at nine furlongs on the grass and she held on to win by a neck under rider Abel Cedillo, who rides back Saturday for trainer Peter Miller.
Laura's Light's chief rivals appear to be a pair of stakes winners in Benjamin and Sally Warren's Warren's Showtime, who'll be handled by regular rider Jorge Velez, and the Florida shipper Cheermeister, who is owned by Teresa and David Palmer and gets the saddle services of Victor Espinoza.
Cheermeister, who is by Bodemeister, won a pair of graded turf stakes at Gulfstream Park earlier this year and will be making her first start since May 15. Trainer Armando De La Cerda has guided the quick lassie to four victories in seven starts, all but one of them on the lawn. She has been training steadily in Florida since her last out.
The San Clemente is one of three stakes on the Saturday card at Del Mar, the others being the $150,000, Grade II San Diego Handicap and the $65,000 Smiling Tiger Stakes.
Here's the complete field for the San Clemente in post position order with riders and morning line odds:
Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners' She's So Special (Flavien Prat, 5-1); DRJ Racing and Great Friends Stable's Lazy Daisy (Giovanni Franco, 20-1); Laura's Light (3-1); Batchelor Family Trust's Over Attracted (Mike Smith, 15-1); Red Barons Barn or Rancho Temesca's Croughavouke (Umberto Rispoli, 6-1); Cheermeister (6-1); Next Wave Racing, Baltas or Robershaw's Little Bird (Ruben Fuentes, 15-1); Gainesway Stable, LNJ Foxwoods or Rose's Mind Out (Brice Blanc, 15-1); Warren's Showtime (7/2); Benowitz Family Trust and Madaket Stable's Guitty (Juan Hernandez, 20-1), and Medallion Racing, Next Wave Racing, et al's Applecross (Drayden Van Dyke, 12-1).
The San Clemente will be the 9th of 11 races on the Saturday program.
First post all afternoons at Del Mar is 2 p.m.
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