DEL MAR, Calif.— The stakes action continues Sunday at Del Mar with the G3 Torrey Pines, a one-mile race on the main track for 3-year-old fillies. It’s attracted Santa Anita Oaks winner Desert Dawn, fresh off her runner-up finish to Blue Stripe in the G1 Clement Hirsch last month.
“She ran a great race here against older last time in the Grade 1,” notes trainer Phil D’Amato. “This time we’re going to run against fellow 3-year-old fillies and it should be a good spot for her.”
The daughter of the Tapit sire Cupid was third behind Secret Oath and Nest in the Kentucky Oaks and then ran third to Under the Stars in the G2 Summertime Oaks at Santa Anita in June.
Under the Stars is back for this one for trainer Bob Baffert.
“She got a little sick on me and I missed a couple of weeks with her,” Baffert says. “She’s one more work away but she has the class.”
The daughter of Pioneerof the Nile won the G2 Santa Ynez in her 3-year-old debut at Santa Anita in January, ran second to Eda in the G3 Santa Ysabel in March in her first race around two turns, then stumbled badly at the start and finished fourth, 11-lengths behind Desert Dawn in the Santa Anita Oaks.
The other Baffert horse in the Torrey Pines is Grace Adler, last year’s top 2-year-old filly at the Del Mar summer meet. The daughter of Curlin is coming off of a runner-up finish to the fast 4-year-old Slammed in her 2022 debut, an allowance sprint at Del Mar on opening day. Slammed returned last Sunday and got into a stretch-long duel with Edgeway in the G3 Rancho Bernardo, losing by a half a length in the end.
Grace Adler hasn’t won since taking the Del Mar Debutante last year. She’ll have a riders switch, from Florent Geroux to Mike Smith.
The Torrey Pines goes off as Race 5 on the 11-race Sunday card.
Here’s the field from the rail with the jockeys: Desert Dawn (Umberto Rispoli); Kirstenbosch (Tyler Baze); Midnight Memories (Ramon Vazquez); Malibu Marie (Jose Valdivia); Under the Stars (Juan Hernandez); Cinnamon Cat (Abel Cedillo), and Grace Adler.
DMTC Press Release
Photo: Desert Dawn (Benoit Photo)
