Proposed debuts in stakes

DEL MAR, Calif. - The expectations for are so high that the 2-year-old filly will make her career debut in the $125,000 California Thoroughbred Breeders Association Stakes on Friday at Del Mar.

She will need to win to keep pace with her 3-year-old full-sister Silent Sighs, who won the Grade 1 Santa Anita Oaks at Santa Anita last March.

"How do you top a filly that has won a Grade 1?" said Julio Canani, who trains both fillies.

Owned by Marty and Pam Wygod, Proposed breaks from post 5 in a field of eight California-breds and will be ridden by David Flores. She has shown several quick workouts in the last two months, including bullet workouts at Hollywood Park on June 18 and July 1.

"She's training really well," Canani said. "David is really high on the filly."

The CTBA Stakes is the top race on an eight-race program that begins at 4 p.m. Pacific.

Proposed will be well-backed in a field that includes the impressive maiden winners Miss January, , and Western Blondy.

Two other fillies in the race, Kelly's Princess and Swiss Please, have stakes experience. Kelly's Princess was third in the Nursery Stakes at Hollywood Park in May and second in the Juan Gonzalez Memorial Stakes at the Alameda County Fair in Pleasanton on July 3.

Swiss Please has started in three stakes. She was third as the favorite in the Cinderella Stakes at Hollywood Park on June 6, but then finished sixth at 86-1 in the Grade 3 Landaluce Stakes on July 5. Trainer Mike Harrington quickly dismisses the Landaluce result.

"She lost a shoe and the rider said she couldn't handle the track," he said.

The recent maiden winners are promising fillies, and each showed speed in her last start.

Sterling Cat won a maiden race by two lengths at Pleasanton on July 3. Trained by Jeff Bonde, she was purchased for $160,000 at the Barretts Yearling Sale last October.

Western Blondy has not started since May 19, when she won a maiden race over 4 1/2 furlongs at Hollywood Park by a convincing 2 1/4 lengths. Doug O'Neill trains.

Miss January beat maidens over five furlongs in her debut at Hollywood Park on June 24. Trained by Wesley Ward, the In Excess filly led throughout and scored by 1 1/4 lengths under jockey Martin Pedroza.

"We wanted to get her some experience," said Blake Heap, Ward's assistant. "She looks like she does everything really well. We'll have to step it up a bit, but she looks like she has some class to her."