Unique Bella fades after a fast start

Heavy favorites disappointed in the Breeders’ Cup on Saturday at Del Mar, and Unique Bella couldn’t avoid that fate in the $1 million Filly & Mare Sprint.

Trained by Jerry Hollendorfer, the gray 3year-old filly set fast fractions in the 7-furlong race (21.84 seconds for the first quartermile, 44.35 for the half) but faded in the stretch to finish seventh.

Bar of Gold, a 66-1 shot, rallied from nextto-last place in the field of 14 to edge 18-1 Ami’s Mesa by a nose in 1:22.63.

Unique Bella lost by 7 lengths and even finished 3¼ lengths behind fifth-place Princess Karen, whom she beat by 3½ lengths in the LA Woman Stakes on Oct. 8 at Santa Anita.

That race was Unique Bella’s first start in seven months due to sore shins, but because it was her fifth straight dominant win, she went off the 11-10 favorite Saturday.

“She only ran once, and when she went that fast it was going to be tough,” jockey Mike Smith said. “Maybe if we had it to do over again we’d take back (off of the pace).”

Hollendorfer won the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile the day before with Battle of Midway.

“It doesn’t matter what you did yesterday, it matters what you did today,” he said by phone. “If you don’t want to deal with that then you can’t be in the game.”

Unique Bella and Princess Karen, trained by Jeff Bonde, were the only 3-year-olds in the Filly & Mare Sprint and such horses are now 0-for-31 in the 11 runnings of the race.

“I didn’t tell Mike to go to the lead, but I told him to get on his way,” Hollendorfer said. “We wanted to get out of there on the way, but you’re not going to win going 21 and 44 here against good horses. I don’t blame Mike; I blame myself.”