With Honors facing East Coast foes in Durante Stakes

DEL MAR, Calif. – With Honors is returning to her favorite surface, but she’ll have to hold off invaders from two of the East Coast’s best trainers when she heads the field in a terrific renewal of the Grade 3, $100,000 Jimmy Durante Stakes for 2-year-old turf fillies on Saturday at Del Mar.

With Honors won both of her starts on this course during the summer meeting before trying dirt in her last two starts, both Grade 1 races. She was second in the Chandelier, then ninth most recently in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies. Though she has placed in a Grade 1 stakes, the Durante offers a chance to get her first graded stakes win.

To do so, she’ll have to hold off Defiant Honor, Happy Mesa, and Journey Home, all of whom have solid credentials.

Defiant Honor ships in for trainer Jimmy Toner after beating maidens on the turf at Belmont Park in her last start. That race was run on yielding ground, but she ran a good race when encountering trouble in her only prior start, on firm ground at Belmont.

“She’s very versatile. She’ll handle anything,” Toner said Thursday by phone from New York. “She ran into some traffic in her first race, but it’s kind of a blessing because she got a good experience out of it, and it set her up well for the next race.”

Happy Mesa and Journey Home both are trained by Graham Motion. Happy Mesa gets some class relief after finishing ninth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf last time out, while Journey Home was a winner of her lone start at Laurel earlier this month.

Locals Mo’vette and Partyinthepaddock are also major players.

A bulky field of 13 is entered in the Durante, a one-mile grass race that was known as the Miesque when it was run at Hollywood Park. It goes as race 6 on the nine-race card and thus kicks off the pick four.

KEY CONTENDERS

With Honors, by War Front
Last 3 Beyers: 60-79-73

◗ Her two wins here during the summer were both visually impressive. She should relish a return to this surface.

Defiant Honor, by Speightstown
Last 2 Beyers: 78-69

◗ Toner has done wonders with members of this family over the years. She is a full sister to the late Recepta and is out of a half-sister to the champion grass female Soaring Softly.

◗ She won from the outside post 12 going 1 1/16 miles on turf at Belmont Park last time out, a difficult draw coming out of that dogleg. She landed the rail this time.

Happy Mesa, by Sky Mesa
Last 3 Beyers: 66-70-74

◗ She was a good second in the Surfer Girl at Santa Anita prior to the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf.

Journey Home, by War Front
Beyer: 65

◗ She closed with a rush to win her lone start.

◗ Motion has had great success ($2.36 ROI) with jockey Drayden Van Dyke, whom he employs here.