Bellafina to cut back for BC Filly and Mare Sprint

ARCADIA, Calif. – Bellafina, the six-time graded stakes winner who was fourth in Saturday’s Grade 1 Cotillion Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at Parx, will be pointed for the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint at seven furlongs at Santa Anita on Nov. 2.

Trainer Simon Callaghan said on Sunday that the $1 million Cotillion Stakes at 1 1/16 miles was too long for Bellafina’s best effort.

“I would guess we would go for the Breeders’ Cup,” Callaghan said. “I think she’s better around one turn.”

Owned by Kaleem Shah, Bellafina is winless in three starts since the Santa Anita Oaks in April. All six of her stakes wins have been at Del Mar and Santa Anita.

The Callaghan-trained Amalfi Sunrise, who won the Grade 2 Sorrento Stakes at Del Mar on Aug. 3, has shown recent improvement while hospitalized for pneumonia for more than three weeks.

Callaghan said on Sunday that the illness has been so severe that Amalfi Sunrise may not race again. An evaluation will be made in coming months, he said.

“I don’t know if she’ll be a racing prospect or a broodmare prospect,” he said. “She’ll get out of the hospital hopefully in a week.”