Bulletproof One brings impressive maiden win into Everett Nevin Stakes

First-out winners Bulletproof One and Shady Empire look like the ones to beat in Saturday’s $100,000 Everett Nevin Stakes, a 5 1/2-furlong race for 2-year-olds at the Alameda County Fair in Pleasanton. Of the 10 horses in the race, three are fillies, including Bulletproof One.

Bulletproof One, a daughter of the Grade 1-winning sprinter Idiot Proof, went off at 7-10 in Northern California’s first 2-year-old race of the year and made the price look like an overlay, romping by eight lengths at Golden Gate Fields.

“She’s got an exceptional mind,” owner and trainer Ellen Jackson said. “She’s an old soul in a young body.”

After that May 11 race, Jackson took her back to her original home at Victory Rose Thoroughbreds. Bulletproof One has four works since returning to the track, including a six-furlong work over the Pleasanton track followed by a 34.80-second three-furlong blowout there June 28.

“I told the rider to go easy, and when he came back he said he thought it was an easy 37” seconds, Jackson said. “But she glides so pretty over the track; she seems to be going very easy.”

Bulletproof One beat males in her debut, and a filly won the Everett Nevin as recently as 2017 (Kimberlea K).

Trainer Jeff Bonde won the Nevin last year with Luck’s Royal Flush, and he is back this year with Shady Empire, who won a statebred maiden race at Santa Anita by 2 1/2 lengths on May 17.

“He showed his precocity right away,” Bonde said.

Other contenders in the Nevin include Roses for Laura, a filly who won a statebred maiden race at Santa Anita by three lengths, and Drippin Sauce, who won over the Pleasanton track on June 20 in his debut.

Everett Nevin Stakes, race 9

Key contenders

Bulletproof One, by Idiot Proof

Beyer: 58

◗ Her only race came over the Tapeta at Golden Gate, and she switches to dirt at Pleasanton.

◗ All three of her siblings are winners, one is stakes-placed.

Shady Empire, by Empire Way

Beyer: 56

◗ The runner-up and third-place finisher in his race came back to run fourth and fifth in a maiden race June 2 at Santa Anita.

Drippin Sauce, by Vronsky

Beyer: 57

◗ He stalked the pace early in a maiden $20,000 claimer and won by 1 3/4 lengths.

◗ His trainer, Jonathan Wong, has a strong 24 percent win rate with 2-year-olds.