Battle brewing between Neige Blanche, Sister Otoole in Red Carpet

DEL MAR, Calif. – The phrase “roll out the red carpet” often accompanies an arrival, but the Red Carpet Stakes on Thursday at Del Mar might celebrate departure.

Neige Blanche and Sister Otoole, durable 6-year-old mares whose successful careers are winding down, race 1 3/8 miles on turf Thursday in the Grade 3 Red Carpet. Who do you like? The correct answer is both.

Ten-time winner Neige Blanche and multiple stakes winner Sister Otoole meet six other fillies and mares Thursday in the traditional Thanksgiving feature on a card that includes a $94,601 pick six carryover. Oakhurst and Linda’s Gift merit longshot chances in the Red Carpet, but the race is primarily a showcase for two admirable veterans.

Leonard Powell trains Neige Blanche, who never surrenders.

“She’s very, very game,” Powell said. “She loves the competition. When she’s in a battle, she loves to fight it out. She pins her ears back and just wants to get there first.”

She has never lost a battle.

“You can see in her record, she’s got a lot of wins, and she does not have any seconds,” Powell noted.

Neige Blanche, whose wins include the 2021 Red Carpet, is nearing the end of her racing career.

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“There’s a fair chance [the Red Carpet] is going to be her swan song,” Powell said. “There’s always the possibility of having one more race at Santa Anita, but she’s more than likely going to be bred next season.”

Neige Blanche, whose rider is Diego Herrera, enters the Red Carpet having won 10 races and $625,780 from 25 starts. Her seven stakes wins include four graded stakes. She stretches to her preferred marathon trip after finishing fifth last out in a Grade 2 at 1 1/4 miles.

Neige Blanche began her career in late 2019 in France before she was imported to the United States. She is owned by Laura De Seroux, Marsha Naify, and Mathilde Powell, the trainer’s wife.

Sister Otoole has been around almost as long. She was purchased by Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and moved to trainer Graham Motion following a third-place debut in a dirt sprint at Tampa Bay Downs in January 2019.

Over the next four seasons, Sister Otoole established herself as a hard-nosed, honest distance specialist.

“She’s tough, she’s very tough,” Motion said. “She doesn’t go to the racetrack very often, sometimes I breeze her out in the fields because she tends to overdo it” at the track.

Based at the Fair Hill Training Center in Maryland, Sister Otoole is 2 for 3 at Del Mar in turf marathons. She and jockey Antonio Fresu defeated Neige Blanche in a similar Del Mar stakes in August.

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Motion described Sister Otoole as “a hard-knocking, blue-collar horse.” She has won four races and $419,470 from 22 starts.

Sister Otoole’s future is to be determined. Aron Wellman, president and founder of Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, said via text the Red Carpet “will determine whether Sister Otoole continues to race at age 7 or if she’ll move on to the next phase of her life as a broodmare.”

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