Bellafina works toward stakes

DEL MAR, Calif. – The six-time stakes winner Bellafina worked five furlongs in 59.80 seconds at Del Mar on Friday for a scheduled start in a stakes for 3-year-old fillies at Charles Town or Parx Racing on Sept. 21, trainer Simon Callaghan said.

The Grade 3 Charles Town Oaks, a $300,000 race at seven furlongs, and the Grade 1 Cotillion Stakes, a $1 million race at 1 1/16 miles, are under consideration for Bellafina, Callaghan said.

Bellafina, third as the 9-5 favorite in the Grade 1 Test Stakes at Saratoga on Aug. 3, had the fastest time of 18 works at the distance. She was fitted with blinkers for the workout, the first time she wore the equipment since a win the Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante here last September. Callaghan said Bellafina will wear blinkers in her next race.

“She’s tightened up since that last race,” Callaghan said.

Owned by Kaleem Shah, Bellafina has won 6 of 10 starts and earned $1,162,125. After winning her third Grade 1 race in the $400,000 Santa Anita Oaks at 1 1/16 miles on April 6, Bellafina has lost her two most recent starts – a fifth in the Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs on May and the Test, when she finished 9 1/4 lengths behind winner Covfefe.