Princess Noor has several options for her stepping-stone to Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies
DEL MAR, Calif. – Gary Young has established a well-deserved reputation as one of the top clockers on the West Coast, and his eye has been relied upon for numerous purchases over the years, going back to the likes of 1993 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner Brocco and right through this year’s Ashland winner, Speech.
Earlier this year, a new client, Amir Zedan, hired Young to buy 2-year-olds at the breeze-up sales, and gave him a significant budget. Their first purchase was a daughter of first-crop sire Not This Time, for whom Zedan – who races as Zedan Racing Stable – gave the okay to Young to keep bidding until finally getting the filly for $1.35 million.
There was plenty of pressure on Young to be right at that number. So far, he’s been spot on.
That filly, now named Princess Noor, won the Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante on Sunday, and now has designs on being the champion 2-year-old filly, with the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies on Nov. 6 at Keeneland the ultimate goal.
How she gets there, though, is in question.
Even with the Breeders’ Cup a week later than usual, and Del Mar ending as late as possible with Labor Day falling on Sept. 7, Santa Anita has scheduled its prep for the Juvenile Fillies, the Grade 2, 1 1/16-mile Chandelier Stakes, around the same time as usual, on Sept. 26. That means any filly who ran in the Debutante would have to come back in just 20 days, then have six weeks until the Breeders’ Cup.
“If we run in the Chandelier that means three races in 35 days,” Young said Monday morning, referencing that Princess Noor was returning for the Debutante only 15 days after winning her debut. “I know that she didn’t run that hard yesterday. Still, that’s three races in 35 days.”
:: DRF's Del Mar headquarters – Stakes schedule, previews, recaps, past performances, and more
Young said races like the Alcibiades on Oct. 2 at Keeneland or the Frizette on Oct. 10 at Belmont Park have better spacing. But both would involve shipping. Ultimately, he said, trainer Bob Baffert will make the call.
Princess Noor was an easy winner of the Debutante, then had to survive a stewards’ inquiry into a significant bumping incident at the start between Princess Noor and My Girl Red. The stewards voted unanimously to let the result stand.
“I didn’t want to win that way,” Young said. “But did she deserve to come down? Absolutely not. If you watch the overhead shot from the starting gate, My Girl Red bumps my filly first. Yes, she did come in after that. It looks bad from the head-on. But the camera from the gate shows that.”
My Girl Red, a daughter of Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner Texas Red, was pulled up a furlong into the race but walked off the track.
“She looks fine this morning,” her trainer, Keith Desormeaux, said Monday. “We’ll point for the Chandelier. It’s something we’ve been pointing toward. She’s bred to get that distance. If she’s good, she’ll go. If not, we’ll take our time.”