On paper, at least, Sorrento comes up soft
DEL MAR, Calif. – It’s catch-up time for the 2-year-old filly division Friday at Del Mar, where an unsung field of seven entered the Sorrento Stakes.
“On paper, it looks like a very weak Grade 2,” trainer Jim Chapman noted.
He is right. Sorrento favorite September Secret won a statebred maiden-claiming race two weeks ago; second choice My Girl Red earned a mere 50 Beyer Speed Figure in her debut win; Scaterra, the best of Chapman’s three Sorrento entrants, won her debut with a 46.
The field is so modest even first-time starter Get On the Bus has a shot for trainer Doug O’Neill, who attributes the shallow depth of the 2-year-old division to the pandemic.
“The COVID thing has kept a lot of horses from having more experience going into these stakes,” O’Neill said. “It makes you slow down a little bit. You wanted to make sure you didn’t have them super ready with nowhere to go.”
Get On the Bus was ready to run July 10, opening day of the Del Mar meet, but so few 2-year-old fillies entered a maiden race scheduled that day that the race did not fill. The delay could have cost Get On the Bus her summer campaign due to a frightening gate incident the following weekend.
“It was a team of three, she reared up, sat down, and got lodged in the gate,” O’Neill said. “It was a pretty bad experience for her. She missed a work, but thank God she came out of it fine.”
Except for the gate incident, O’Neill said Get On the Bus “acts like a big-time filly.”
“The dream goal into the meet was break her maiden, then possibly the Sorrento,” he said. “When the break-the-maiden thing didn’t happen, we kept with the Sorrento idea.”
Get On the Bus, by Uncle Mo, worked twice since the aborted work and schooled multiple times at the gate. She is expected to run well, despite the inside post under Mario Gutierrez. O’Neill is no stranger to winning a Del Mar stakes with a 2-year-old first-time starter. Know More won his debut in the Grade 2 Best Pal in 2012.
September Secret, 2-1 Sorrento favorite by linemaker John Lies, also recovered from a setback. Hers was a mental meltdown July 2 at Los Alamitos.
“She kind of lost it in the paddock at Los Al,” trainer Peter Miller said. “She had never been there, and it’s a little bit of a claustrophobic paddock for some horses. She was pretty washed out.”
September Secret did not run a jump and finished next to last. Second time out, dropping from special-weight to statebred maiden-claiming July 24 at Del Mar, she broke running, pressed the pace, and won by more than seven lengths with a 68 Beyer.
Abel Cedillo takes over on September Secret from Flavien Prat, who rides eye-catching debut winner My Girl Red. Keith Desormeaux trains My Girl Red, sired by Desormeaux-trained 2014 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner Texas Red.
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Desormeaux 2-year-olds typically race into condition rather than win first out, but My Girl Red proved an exception. Desormeaux said he was not surprised she won, only the way she did it – gate to wire.
“We knew she was hugely talented,” Desormeaux said. “I don’t really train for maximum speed, so for her to show that kind of speed in a four and a half-furlong race was a little surprising. She’s natural, the speed is natural. But the talent level didn’t surprise us at all.”
My Girl Red broke running under Prat, was hounded from the outside, shook off her pace rival, and won by more than four lengths. The significance of her 50 Beyer is debatable because the race was at an abbreviated distance two months ago. Desormeaux believes My Girl Red is maturing physically and will appreciate the six-furlong Sorrento distance.
Eric Brehm, owner-breeder of My Girl Red, was among the partners in Texas Red. He purchased My Girl Red’s dam for $21,000 specifically to breed to Texas Red, and he entered the yearling filly in a 2019 sale. My Girl Red did not meet her reserve.
“I’m glad she didn’t,” Desormeaux said, laughing, and added My Girl Red “has grown, she’s put on weight, and muscle” since her debut.
Out-of-state shippers are only 1 for 17 in the Sorrento the past 20 years (Sunset Glow in 2014), but few shippers have met a field as suspect as the Chapman-trained trio meet Friday.
Trip to Seoul won a maiden race at Mountaineer Park third time out; Scat’s Choice won a maiden race at Belterra Park third time out; Scaterra romped in her debut at Arlington. All three fillies are part-owned by Chapman, based in Lexington, Ky., and arrived at Del Mar on Monday.
“They all stable together at The Training Center next to each other, they rode the plane together, and they’re here together [at Del Mar], so it’s kind of neat,” Chapman said.
Scaterra was nominated to the Grade 2 Adirondack on Aug. 12 at Saratoga, but after perusing the probable field for the Sorrento, Chapman sent her west.
“I think she could be a really good horse, and she looks like a good horse,” Chapman said.
Chapman won the 2000 Sorrento with Give Praise.