Miss Big Stuff tries to bounce back

DEL MAR, Calif. – For a weekday allowance race that’s not even the day’s feature, Thursday’s sixth race at Del Mar came up quite tough, with three stakes-placed fillies among the field of six.

The favorite, though, might not even be among that trio. Miss Big Stuff, who earned a solid 82 Beyer Speed Figure when defeating males in a maiden race at Del Mar in August, is seeking to rebound off a fourth-place performance as the 5-2 favorite in the Anoakia Stakes at Santa Anita on Oct. 11. She finished behind Uptown Twirl and Find Joy, two of her rivals on Thursday in the 5 1/2-furlong allowance for 2-year-old fillies.

“We were kind of perplexed that she ran such a flat race,” Peter Miller, the trainer of Miss Big Stuff, said of the Anoakia. “It was hot. It was a different racetrack. She’s been training super, and we know she likes this racetrack.”

Uptown Twirl was second in the Anoakia and defeated maidens in her debut in June at Santa Anita. In her only start at Del Mar, she was fifth of six in the Grade 2 Sorrento behind the fleet Pretty N Cool.

Also in the field is One Last Shot, who returns to a dirt sprint – the kind of race she won here in her debut in August – after a pair of stakes tries going two turns on turf.