Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Spectator on top – for now
DEL MAR, Calif. – Spectator is the leader of the 2-year-old filly division on the West Coast, but her position is precarious, for this summer at Del Mar has seen a number of promising fillies debut. Several will try to dethrone her in a compelling edition of the Grade 1, $300,000 Del Mar Debutante on Saturday.
Just a Smidge, Moonshine Memories, and Poetic all looked like potential stars with their first-out wins, and they are signed up to face Spectator, who owns the edge on experience – she has raced twice – and stakes competition, for she comes off a victory over this track in the Grade 2 Sorrento on Aug. 5.
Gas Station Sushi also was a strong winner of her lone start, but she spiked a temperature mid-week, did not go to the track to train Thursday, and trainer Richard Baltas on Thursday said she would be scratched.
“You have to do the right thing,” said Baltas, who said Gas Station Sushi would “wait for the Chandelier,” a Grade 1 race at Santa Anita on Sept. 30 that offers a fees-paid berth to the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies on Nov. 4 at Del Mar.
With Gas Station Sushi out, that would leave seven in the seven-furlong race, and it’s as good a Debutante as has been seen in these parts in years.
Spectator won her debut June 23 at Santa Anita, then took the Sorrento, each time obliterating her rivals by 5 1/4 lengths under Jamie Theriot.
“From the get-go, I couldn’t find a horse to breeze with her,” said Phil D’Amato, who trains Spectator for her breeders, Rick and Sharon Waller.
“I had to work her with older horses to give her a challenge.”
Spectator has shown good versatility. She stalked and pounced from an outside post in her debut, then used speed to gain position when drawn inside in the Sorrento.
“I’m confident she can sit where Jamie wants and kick on when need be,” D’Amato said.
Just a Smidge might be her biggest threat. She won the very first race of the meet for 2-year-old fillies on opening day July 19 going five furlongs, and her recent workouts have been impressive. She owns best-ofthe-morning drills in her last two works, and she galloped out well, too.
“She acts like a filly that wants to go long, and she has speed,” said her trainer, Bob Baffert.
Moonshine Memories was a fast winner going six furlongs in her debut.
“That’s what we were hoping for, and it was nice to see her do it that way,” said her trainer, Simon Callaghan.
That race, though, was just two weeks ago, hence the methodical approach Callaghan has taken toward wheeling her back. He was happy with her workout last Sunday, said she had done well since, and Thursday said that as long as there’s no regression the decision would be to run.
Mike Smith rode Moonshine Memories in her debut, but Flavien Prat will inherit the mount because Smith will ride Poetic, who also was a first-out winner, at 9-1, on July 30 going 5 1/2 furlongs.
Trainer Richard Mandella said he thought the extra distance would benefit Poetic.
“We’ve always liked her,” he said. “Was a little surprised she ran so well first time.
“The way she’s trained, and off her first race, you get the feeling it would help her.”
Poetic is owned by Rick Porter’s Fox Hill Farm, which won the Debutante two years
ago with Songbird, the two-time champion filly who was retired Thursday.
The Debutante goes as race 7 on an 11-race card that begins at 2 p.m. Pacific. Also on the card is the Grade 2 John C. Mabee for female grass runners, and two 2-year-old maiden races, with race 8 featuring the second start of St Patrick’s Day, the full brother to Triple Crown winner American Pharoah.
The two stakes on Saturday are the first of seven stakes that will be run here the final three days of the meet, which closes Monday.