D'Amato has deep team for elusive Del Mar turf stakes

ARCADIA, Calif. – For all that he has accomplished on turf, winning 159 stakes since 2014, the two graded turf stakes for 3-year-old fillies at the Del Mar summer meeting have largely eluded Phil D’Amato.

D’Amato has one win in the Grade 2 San Clemente Stakes at a mile, with Bellabel in 2022, and one win in the Grade 1 Del Mar Oaks at 1 1/8 miles, with Going Global in 2021.

This summer, D’Amato will have a deep team of candidates for those races. The group is expected to include Circle of Trust, who won her first stakes in Saturday’s Grade 3 Honeymoon Stakes at Santa Anita, as well as Loterie, a maiden race winner on May 26 who was stakes-placed last year, and Zona Verde, a stakes winner at Del Mar last December.

Circle of Trust is the latest addition to the stable’s hopefuls for the $200,000 San Clemente on July 20, opening day of the track’s summer meeting.

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Circle of Trust, owned by Jim Downey, won for the second time in her seventh start in the $101,000 Honeymoon Stakes. She finished first in a maiden race last October, but was disqualified for causing interference.

Earlier this spring, Circle of Trust won a maiden race – again – on March 15, and finished well to be third in the Grade 3 Providencia Stakes at 1 1/8 miles on turf on April 20.

The improved form does not surprise D’Amato, who has also won 50 stakes on dirt in his career.

“Hopefully, she can keep improving like she has,” D’Amato said. “She’s a big, long, lanky filly. It’s taken time for her to fill out and get stronger.”

Circle of Trust is by Union Rags, winner of the 2012 Belmont Stakes at 1 1/2 miles in his last start, and is out of the unraced 10-year-old mare Open House, by Tapit.

“Being out of a Tapit mare by a stallion whose claim to fame was winning a Belmont, you can see that as she gets older, she’ll be progressive,” D’Amato said.

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