Daz Lin Dawn looks to stretch streak in Supernaturel

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – The only time Daz Lin Dawn and Yukon Belle met going 1 1/16 miles, Yukon Belle won the $75,000 Fantasy for 2-year-old fillies while carrying equal weights. Yukon Belle was sent off as the favorite and paid $4.20 for her 2 1/2-length victory over Daz Lin Dawn.

Fast forward to Saturday’s feature at Hastings, where they will be stretching out to a middle distance for the first time this year in the $50,000 Supernaturel Handicap, and things have changed. Daz Lin Dawn will carry the high weight of 124 pounds, nine more than Yukon Belle, in the 1 1/16-mile race for 3-year-old fillies.

Despite the huge shift in weights and that Daz Lin Dawn has not won a race longer than 6 1/2 furlongs, the daughter of Popular is going to be a prohibitive favorite to win her fourth straight stakes race.

Trained by Nancy Betts, Daz Lin Dawn won the first three sprint stakes for fillies at Hastings by a combined 22 1/2 lengths.

With Richard Hamel riding, she was in the mix early in the B.C. Cup Dogwood and Ross McLeod. Sent off at 1-10, she gave her many backers concern when Hamel eased her back to last in the Emerald Downs on June 25. It didn’t matter. She took control at the eighth pole, and with Hamel wrapping up on her in the final sixteenth, she drew off to win by seven lengths.

Betts is confident she will be just as dominant going around three turns.

“She went into season just before the Fantasy last year, and she still ran a good race,” she said. “That isn’t going to happen now, and she just couldn’t be doing any better. I’m just glad the race filled, or we were going to run her against the boys in the Chris Loseth or ship her to Emerald for the Washington Oaks. This worked out perfectly.”

The Chris Loseth for 3-year-olds, scheduled for Sunday, was canceled due to insufficient entries. If Daz Lin Dawn had entered the Loseth, the race would have been used.

Instead, she will break from post 3 in the Supernaturel, with Hamel retaining the mount.

Trainer Barbara Heads likes the way Yukon Belle is coming up to the race but said she will have her work cut out for her.

“Nancy’s horse is extraordinarily nice, and she’s a big filly, so she can handle the weight,” Heads said. “My filly has been training well, and she’s a better horse going long – maybe not better than Nancy’s horse though.”

Yukon Belle will break from the outside post in the five-horse field with Enrique Gonzalez riding.

It looks like a cinch exacta, with the Phil Hall-trained Good Luck to You or his Baby’s Got Track completing the trifecta.

“Don’t be so sure,” Hall said. “There could be an upset.”

Betts will use Morning Blurs as a rabbit for Daz Lin Dawn.