Back on firm turf, Elsa impresses in Jimmy Durante

DEL MAR, Calif. – Elsa already had proven she preferred firm ground, and her trainer, Mike Stidham, thought extra distance would only help her cause.

The combination of both pushed Stidham to bring Elsa to Del Mar for the Grade 3, $102,415 Jimmy Durante Stakes on Saturday, and the race could not have played out any better, as Elsa roared on the far turn and pulled clear through the lane for a 2 1/4-length win at 11-1 in the one-mile grass race for 2-year-old fillies.

Elsa ($24.80) went off at a huge price owing to her last start, when she finished seventh of 11 in the Selima Stakes at Laurel as the even-money favorite. But that race was run on a yielding course, far from the firm courses she had encountered at Laurel and Saratoga in her first two starts, which resulted in a win and a third.

“She broke sharp and just started retreating backwards,” Stidham said of the Selima.

“Definitely firm turf is what we were looking for,” he said. “She hated the soft. We were looking for firm, and California was the place we wanted to be.”

Stidham said he also thought “the added distance” would help Elsa, a cleverly named daughter of Animal Kingdom who had raced no farther than six furlongs in her first three races. “She’s a big galloper,” Stidham said. “Not a big horse, but she gallops big.” She also got Lasix for the Durante.

Elsa was eighth of 12 midway through the race, but once jockey Joe Bravo was able to angle her to the outside at the three-furlong pole, she launched a powerful move that carried her all the way to first by the time the field reached the eighth pole. The result was never in doubt after that, and she crossed the finish in 1:35.68 for one mile on the firm course.

Courteous, the early leader, held on for second, a head in front of 2-1 favorite Pivottina, who closed from 10th.

There were several troubled trips, including Italia, who broke poorly and then bolted on the far turn while looking out of sorts throughout, and Thriving, who tried to rally inside only to hit a roadblock, forcing her to check sharply and lose all chance a quarter-mile out.

Elsa was bred and is owned by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum’s Godolphin, which has approximately 20 horses with Stidham, including numerous 2-year-olds.

“It’s nice to see those kinds of horses, those pedigrees,” Stidham said.

Elsa had been at Fair Grounds in recent weeks, and after her one-week visit here she will return to New Orleans for the winter.