Helens Well comes into Blue Norther off troubled trip
ARCADIA, Calif. – Everything was going as expected for Helens Well in the Grade 3 Jimmy Durante Stakes at Del Mar on Nov. 27 until the filly reached the turn.
Racing toward the back of the field, Helens Well was checked by jockey Umberto Rispoli when a rival in front began to fade from contention.
“She lost all her momentum,” trainer Phil D’Amato recalled on Friday. “If she gets around without having to stop, I think she wins the race. She got stopped at the wrong time.”
Helens Well can give support to D’Amato’s opinion when she starts in Sunday’s $100,000 Blue Norther Stakes at a mile on turf for newly turned 3-year-old fillies at Santa Anita.
This will be the fifth consecutive stakes appearance for Helens Well since Labor Day weekend, a span that includes second-place finishes in the Del Mar Juvenile Fillies Turf in September and the Surfer Girl Stakes in October, and an eighth, by 2 1/4 lengths, in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf on Nov. 5.
Helens Well was fourth in the Durante, beaten three-quarters of a length. Rispoli retains the mount on Helens Well, who races for a partnership that includes Jeff Benowitz, John Rochfort, Madaket Stable, Michael Nentwig, and Ray Pagano.
Helens Well made her first start in Ireland, and won her American debut in a maiden special weight race at a mile on turf at Del Mar in August.
Helens Well has earned $118,976, the most in the field of seven in the Blue Norther.
The field includes Mimajoon, who won the Golden Gate Debutante at six furlongs on the synthetic main track at Golden Gate Fields on Nov. 26 and runs for the second time on turf in the Blue Norther.
Mimajoon drew the rail in the Blue Norther and is likely to set the pace, considering she won the Golden Gate Debutante from the front.
D’Amato also starts the Irish import Bellabel, who has not raced since she beat males in a one-mile handicap at Naas Racecourse in September in her fifth start. D’Amato said he planned to start Bellabel in an upcoming allowance race until he saw her recent workouts on dirt at Santa Anita. Flavien Prat has the mount.
“Her last couple of works have been so good,” D’Amato said. “The field isn’t that big, so I think we want to take a chance. We were able to get Prat, so it’s all plusses.”
The Blue Norther will be the American debut for Fuente Ovejuna, a recent import from England now trained by Leonard Powell. Fuente Ovejuna won her second start in an allowance race at Newmarket Racecourse at seven furlongs in late July and was later third against males in a minor handicap at Pontefract Racecourse in northern England on Sept. 23 in her final start in that country.
“She’s pretty straightforward,” Powell said. “It’s her first race here, so you don’t know what to expect. She’s done everything right in the mornings.”