Mo See Cal taking big class drop in Betty Grable Stakes

DEL MAR, Calif. – In the Betty Grable on Sunday at Del Mar, trainer Peter Miller entered three but will run only two and hopes he has the right one.

Miller, the meet’s leading trainer through the first four days of the season, on Friday said he will go with Creative Instinct and Mo See Cal in the $100,000 Betty Grable, a seven-furlong race for female California-breds, while leaving Love a Honeybadger in the barn for another day.

Love a Honeybadger worked six furlongs in 1:15.40 on Friday morning after Miller decided she would skip the Betty Grable.

“I’m going to run the other two,” Miller said.

Seven were entered in the Betty Grable, but now no more than six will run.

Mo See Cal figures to go favored. She is taking a significant drop in class, having competed in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff last time out; she finished sixth of 11 after pressing the early pace. Mo See Cal finished second in a second-level allowance here during the summer meeting, also at seven furlongs, and followed that up with a front-running victory going a mile at Santa Anita on Oct. 10.

She has finished first and second in her two starts on the main track here.

Creative Instinct, the only 3-year-old in the field, is coming off a front-running first-level allowance victory, which came in her second start following a layoff of more than seven months. She began her career with two victories at Del Mar in the summer of 2018.

Starr of Quality, third behind Mo See Cal in that mile allowance at Santa Anita, is an intriguing turn-back play. She also moves back into statebred company, which she defeated in the Dream of Summer going one mile at Santa Anita on June 22.

“I’m not sure about the distance, but it’s a Cal-bred and it’s $100,000 and she tries every time,” her trainer, Bill Spawr, said Friday morning. “It might set up good for her with all the speed in there.”

Show It N Moe It, fifth in this race last year after a poor start, is seeking to end a seven-race losing streak following her victory in the Spring Fever for Cal-breds in February at Santa Anita.

Coco Kisses is returning to her favorite surface. She has finished first or second in all three of her starts on the Del Mar main track.

Queen Bee to You benefits by a switch to jockey Flavien Prat.

The Betty Grable is race 7 on an eight-race card that begins at 12:30 p.m. Pacific.