Insatiable, Mac the Pee H Dee top locals in Blue Sparkler Stakes

Six-figure stakes races for 3-year-old filly turf-sprinters don’t come around every day – at least you wouldn’t think so.

But one day after Saratoga runs the $150,000 Coronation Cup over 5 1/2 furlongs on turf, Monmouth Park on Saturday hosts the $100,000 Blue Sparkler for 3-year-old fillies over 5 1/2 furlongs on turf.

Shocker – five of the 10 fillies entered for turf in the Blue Sparkler also appeared among the entries in the Coronation. Cross-entered Benbang and Marissa’s Lady were scratched from the Coronation, while Sweet Solare, Mystic Eyes, and Empress Tigress stayed in the Saratoga race.

Two New Jersey-based horses that weren’t cross-entered, Insatiable and Mac the Pee H Dee, merit attention. Mac the Pee H Dee, based with trainer Jorge Duarte Jr. at Richard Santulli’s Colt’s Neck Farm a few miles west of Monmouth, exits an off-turf first-level allowance race win at Belmont Park, where she got a career-best 85 Beyer Speed Figure, but her previous start, a turf maiden win at Aqueduct, was similarly impressive. Duarte debuted Mac the Pee H Dee in a turf route Feb. 23 at Gulfstream, but when the filly failed to produce a kick at the two-turn trip, Duarte switched to sprinting.

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“She’s a sprinter, and I think her best game is on the turf,” Duarte said.

Insatiable finished with a flourish to win her career debut, a May 29 Monmouth turf sprint where she beat older rivals, and she was well backed at 5-2 facing elders July 3 in a first-level turf-sprint allowance race. But Insatiable got into tight quarters approaching the far turn, clipping heels with a horse in front of her, causing Insatiable to stumble, and unseating jockey Isaac Castillo. Insatiable showed up on the work tab just five days later, strong evidence she came out of the incident unscathed.

Delmona’s three American starts since being imported from England have come in longer Southern California grass races. She won over five furlongs going around a left-handed bend at Bath last June.

A 10th horse, Drifaros, is entered main track only. Empress Tigress, the lone also-eligible, was cross-entered at Saratoga, but off a sharp Woodbine debut score could prove a Blue Sparkler player if she runs at Monmouth.The feature is the last of 11 races on a card starting at 12:15 p.m. Eastern.