Iotapa targets Zenyatta, Breeders' Cup Distaff
DEL MAR, Calif. - The final races of Iotapa’s 2014 season were set when she won her second consecutive Grade 1 race in Saturday’s $300,250 Clement Hirsch Stakes for fillies and mares at Del Mar.
The Hirsch is part of the Breeders’ Cup’s Win and You’re In program and gives Iotapa a fees-paid berth to the Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Santa Anita in the autumn. For a prep race, Iotapa is expected to start in the $300,000 Zenyatta Stakes at Santa Anita on Sept. 27.
“It’s good spacing throughout,” said Larry Benavidez, assistant to trainer John Sadler.
Sadler missed Iotapa’s race to travel to West Virginia, where Candy Boy, the stable’s star 3-year-old, finished second by a nose to Tapiture in the West Virginia Derby at Mountaineer Racetrack.
Owned by Hronis Racing, Iotapa is in the best form of her career. She won the Grade 1 Vanity Stakes at Santa Anita on June 14, her first win in a race at that level. A 4-year-old filly, Iotapa has won 6 of 12 starts and earned $796,796. She was claimed for $50,000 when she beat maidens in her debut at Hollywood Park in June 2012.