Amorita edges Can't Sleep, earns first stakes win in Daisycutter
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DEL MAR, Calif. - Experience gained from a loss at Santa Anita in May led to Amorita’s first stakes win in a thrilling running of the $107,500 Daisycutter Handicap at Del Mar on Saturday.
Jockey Antonio Fresu rode Amorita for the first time in the Mizdirection Stakes at about 6 1/2 furlongs on the hillside turf course at Santa Anita on May 16. Amorita was always near the front, and led in the stretch before fading to finish fourth by 3 1/2 lengths.
In the Daisycutter Handicap at five furlongs, Fresu took a different approach. Amorita closed from fifth of eight to win by a nose over an unlucky Can’t Sleep.
“Last time, I got to know her,” Fresu said.
Fresu said he expected Amorita to have a sustained run in the Mizdirection, but the 4-year-old filly “didn’t have it,” he said.
In the Daisycutter, Fresu began urging Amorita with three furlongs remaining.
“I was riding her at the three-eighths,” he said. “She kept going.”
The third choice, Amorita ($12.40) rallied wide and finished in 56.38 seconds.
Can’t Sleep, the 5-2 second choice, had her stakes debut in the Daisycutter. She set an early pace of 22.23 seconds for the opening quarter-mile and 44.56 for a half-mile, leading by 1 1/2 lengths with a furlong remaining.
Can’t Sleep seemed on her way to a win until Amorita grabbed the lead at the wire.
Can’t Sleep set the pace for the first time in her eighth career start on Saturday.
“I didn’t think she’d be on the lead,” trainer Carla Gaines said. “I thought I’d sit in the pocket.”
Tahini (6-1) closed from fourth to finish third, three-quarters of a length behind Can’t Sleep.
Princesa Moche, Kuwaitya, Saratoga Special, Ripassare and Imaboutago completed the order of finish.
Saratoga Special, the 3-2 favorite, stalked Can’t Sleep into the stretch before fading from contention.
Amorita, who is by Liam’s Map, has won 3 of 12 starts and earned $206,160. Trained by Richard Mandella for Augustin Stables and Stone Farm, Amorita started in her seventh consecutive stakes in the Daisycutter, her first stakes win.
Amorita’s best previous finish in a stakes were second-place finishes in the China Doll Stakes and the Grade 3 Senorita Stakes, by a head, at Santa Anita in 2025, and a second by three-quarters of a length in the Grade 3 Monrovia Stakes here on April 4.
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