Eurton has hopes for debuting filly

DEL MAR, Calif. – Chickatini, who makes her debut in race 6 on Thursday at Del Mar, is a homebred for Sharon Alesia and Joe Ciaglia. They raced her dam, She’s Cheeky, and then bred the mare to Bernardini.

Chickatini is the second foal by Bernardini and out of She’s Cheeky, but the first who made it to the races, as the first foal died shortly after birth.

“So they bred her back,” said Eurton, who trained She’s Cheeky and now trains Chickatini.

She’s Cheeky raced 26 times, and though she won only three times and never won a stakes race, she was graded stakes-placed seven times, including three times in Grade 1 races.

Eurton said Chickatini has trained well for her first start, “and she got a good draw,” he said, landing post 6 in the five-furlong turf sprint for 2-year-old fillies.

There are several other promising newcomers in the race, including Hope Wins and Belle Monte for trainer Phil D’Amato, Sensible Myth for George Weaver, Enayat Alsalam for John Sadler, and Secret Causeway for Dan Hendricks.

◗ Javier Castellano was fined $1,000 by Del Mar’s stewards for excessive use of the whip when riding West Coast to a third-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Classic on Nov. 4, the biggest fine among several levied from that weekend. Flavien Prat was fined $300 for excessive use of the whip aboard Battle of Midway, who won the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile on Nov. 3. Corey Nakatani ($300) and Tyler Baze ($100) also received fines for similar violations the first week of the meet.