Flashy maiden winners burst on the scene last week at Del Mar and Saratoga. Summer must be in full swing if the weekly notebook is mostly focused on 2-year-olds. Time to dive in. Justique: West Coast wonder A star is born. She is Justique, who broke dead last in her sprint debut July 31 at Del Mar. For the 2-year-old Justify filly trained by John Shirreffs, the start seemingly cost her all chance. “After she broke so poorly, I was like, well, let’s hope she makes a nice run at the end,” Shirreffs said. “And she did.” Justique and Victor Espinoza sliced through the field, angled out and won geared down. “She’s got all the physical tools,” Shirreffs said. “She’s big, she’s rangy, she does it easily.” She earned a 72 Beyer, which is marginally relevant. A $725,000 yearling owned by Lee and Susan Searing, Justique will aim to the Grade 1 seven-furlong Del Mar Debutante on Sept. 10. You’d have to make her the early favorite. Prank: New beast of the East If Justique is the early favorite for the Del Mar Debutante, Saratoga debut winner Prank must be the same for the Grade 1 Spinaway on Sept. 4. Prank, an Into Mischief filly trained by Todd Pletcher, also won July 31, by 9 3/4 lengths with a 91 Beyer. Now that Munnys Gold (101 Beyer) is out for the season, Prank is the country’s fastest 2-year-old in training. In a Daily Racing Form story by David Grening, Pletcher said, “I would think the Spinaway would be high on the radar.” Seven of the last 11 Spinaway winners were maiden winners making their second start. Fast filly. Justa Warrior ‘special’ filly Just behind Prank and Justique is another 2-year-old Justify filly in Justa Warrior, whose Ellis Park debut romp puts her on target for the $125,000 Ellis Park Debutante Aug. 14. “She’s going to be special,” trainer John Ortiz said. “She looks the part.” :: Bet the races with a $200 First Deposit Match and FREE Formulator PPs! Join DRF Bets. Justa Warrior earned a 67 Beyer in her sprint debut, and according to Ortiz “wants to go two turns.” Produced by Grade 1 winner A Z Warrior, Justa Warrior will run seven furlongs in the Ellis Park Debutante, followed perhaps by a route such as the Grade 3 Pocahontas Sept. 17 at Churchill Downs or Grade 1 Alcibiades Oct. 7 at Keeneland. “I’m working backward from the Breeders’ Cup,” Ortiz said. Excessively ambitious? Not for Ortiz, who said, “If your dreams don’t scare you, then you’re not dreaming big enough.” Ortiz shows winning touch Ortiz leads the Ellis Park trainer standings with a record of 8 for 23 with a stable that includes more than 25 juveniles. “We approached this meet with the attitude of trying to win the title, and we have our 2-year-olds very well prepared,” Ortiz said, crediting assistants Daniel Ortiz, who is his brother, and Sandra Washington. Ortiz is 4 for 7 this year with debut 2-year-olds. All seven firsters hit the board. Friday at Ellis, debut 2-year-old filly Windy Bay sprints five furlongs in race 4, and the 2-year-old debut colt Tiz the Coast goes one mile in race 6. Tiz the Coast was sired by West Coast and is a sibling to graded-placed In Due Time. Ortiz said Tiz the Coast “is huge.” “He looks like he’s a two-turn horse,” Ortiz said.. “He’s been training like a monster.” Adirondack figures Remember when betting the Grade 2 Adirondack was as simple as a high last-out figure such as My Miss Aurelia (86 Beyer) and Kauai Katie (100) a decade ago? These days, big-fig maiden wins are not needed to win the Adirondack for 2-year-old fillies. The last seven winners entered with a last-out figure in the 60s to 70s. Sunday at Saratoga, Naughty Gal (75 Beyer maiden win) tops the nominations. Her trainer knows something about the race. D. Wayne Lukas has won the Adirondack a record six times starting in 1985. Matchup looms in turf stakes Comanche Country punched her ticket to the $100,000 Del Mar Juvenile Fillies Turf on Sept. 10 with a solid turf-mile maiden win in her U.S. debut July 30 for trainer Phil D’Amato. It gets tougher. The Del Mar Juvenile Fillies Turf is the target for a highly regarded import from France who has arrived in trainer Leonard Powell’s stable to prepare for her U.S. debut. She is Havana Angel, nine-length maiden winner two back and third last out in a Group 3 at Chantilly. The gray filly might be a good one in the U.S. Park City’s potential Beyond emerging as the country’s fastest 2-year-old turf runner by crushing the Tyro Stakes with an 85 Beyer on July 30 at Monmouth, Sharp Aza Tack flattered the Santa Anita sprint he exited. The runner-up from that June 10 race, Park City, could stretch out Saturday at Del Mar. His debut to Sharp Aza Tack was merely a prep for a maiden turf mile run on July 31 at Del Mar. But that race overfilled, and Park City did not get in. He will re-enter a maiden turf mile this weekend. Trainer Dan Blacker on Park City: “We’ve got high hopes he’s going to be a top-level horse.” If he runs Saturday – and runs well – Park City could return Sept. 11 in the Grade 3 Del Mar Juvenile Turf. Overlooked and underlayed Chances are, the 2022 Breeders’ Cup Classic winner will be listed among the 23 individual horses in the Breeders’ Cup Future Wager. You have to go back to 2008 to find a Classic winner not likely to have been on the radar in early August – European turf miler Raven’s Pass. The 2016 Classic winner Arrogate only had a maiden and two allowance wins as of early August, and may have slipped through the cracks. Prior to Raven’s Pass and Arrogate was 2002 Classic winner Volponi ($89). He was not listed in that year’s Future Wager and paid $15 as an “all others.” For those of us who prefer all-others rather than an individual runner, anything short of an all-others price of 12-1 would probably be an underlay. Epicenter tops Travers line Just fooling around with an early odds line for the Grade 1 Travers Stakes and settled on 8-5 as the opening price for Epicenter, with the filly Nest second choice at 4-1. It’s still three weeks until the Aug. 27 Travers, and Nest reportedly is more likely to face fillies Aug. 20 in the Grade 1 Alabama Stakes instead of the Travers. But for the fun of it, a preliminary Travers line (122 points) goes like this: Epicenter 8-5, Nest 4-1, Zandon 5-1, Charge It 6-1, Cyberknife 8-1, Early Voting 8-1, Artorius 15-1 and Rich Strike 15-1. If Nest does not start, no surprise if Epicenter flirts with even-money in the Travers. Shedaresthedevil no sure thing A mandatory payout in the Del Mar pick six is set for Saturday; the sequence is likely to include the Grade 1 Clement L. Hirsch. Bettors may be tempted to single Shedaresthedevil, who won the Hirsch last year and has history on her side. Since 2000, Hirsch favorites are 14 for 21. However, Shedaresthedevil may or may not be as good as last year, when she won the Grade 2 Azeri and Grade 1 La Troienne prior to the Hirsch. :: Access morning workout reports straight from the tracks and get an edge with DRF Clocker Reports This year, she has lost both her races. Furthermore, 3-year-old Hirsch probable Desert Dawn loves Del Mar. She won on the track last summer and worked well on it this summer. But what about facing older? Since 2000, just two 3-year-olds have run in the Hirsch. Both ran second: House of Fortune in 2004, Zazu in 2011. For what it’s worth, in both those years the Hirsch was won by the longest shots in the field ($70 Miss Loren in 2004, $23.60 Ultra Blend in 2011). Dream ending for ‘Brando’ The California Dreamin’ Stakes on Saturday at Del Mar won’t be the same without old-timer Brandothebartender, who ran in the Cal-bred stakes three straight years and finally won it last year in the final start of his career at age 8. The story ends well. “He’s at Old Friends in Kentucky, out there with my other horse, Awesome Gem,” trainer Craig Dollase said. Brandothebartender was claimed for $40,000 in a six-way shake in summer 2018 at Del Mar, and subsequently won six races and nearly $560,000 in 29 starts for Jerry Weseloh’s Flawless Racing, Brian Flannigan, and Mike and Greta Jarvis. Brandothebartender, 9 for 46 in his career, earned a check in 28 of 29 starts for Dollase. “We called him the ATM around the barn,” Dollase said. Happily ever after at Old Friends.