Pushiness has pace advantage over Chismosa in Betty Grable Stakes

Two stakes-winning fillies with an affinity for Del Mar and opposite styles of running may dominate betting in the $100,000 Betty Grable Stakes on Sunday. Only one of the two fillies is positioned to dominate the race.

Pushiness figures to be loose on the lead in the filly-mare California-bred stakes. If the front-runner carries her speed seven furlongs, the race is over. If not, then late-runner Chismosa may rally for the win. It seems straightforward, which is how speedster Pushiness runs and trains.

“She’s fast all the time,” trainer Michael McCarthy said. “That’s what we’ve worked on for the last year, trying to get her to relax and enjoy her training instead of trying to do everything in a hurry.”

In a race, speed is an attribute. Pushiness has set the pace in each of her seven starts, her four wins include two Del Mar California-bred stakes – the Generous Portion for 2-year-old fillies in 2023 and Fleet Treat for 3-year-old fillies this summer. Umberto Rispoli rides Pushiness, owned by Mike Repole.

As the only apparent front-runner in the Betty Grable, Pushiness holds a tactical advantage over late-runner Chismosa. A four-time stakes winner trained by Rafael DeLeon and owned by breeder Jaime Renella, Chismosa is returning to her preferred footing after a misfire on turf.

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“I love her on the dirt, I don’t love her on the grass,” DeLeon said. He second-guessed scratching Chismosa from the Grade 3 Chillingworth, a dirt race Oct. 5 at Santa Anita, to run in a turf sprint a week later. The reason to scratch was to duck odds-on Sweet Azteca, who surprisingly bombed. In hindsight, DeLeon believes Chismosa could have won the Chillingworth.

It’s moot. Chismosa finished ninth in the turf stakes, but returns to dirt Sunday as the class of the Betty Grable. A two-time California-bred stakes winner as a 2-year-old at Del Mar in 2022, Chismosa has won five races and $522,750 from 21 starts. Tiago Pereira rides.

“She doesn’t like to go right away in front,” DeLeon said. “She has her own pace. I only ask the jockey to stay in the clear.”

Chismosa has raced six times at Del Mar, with three wins and two seconds.

Others in the Betty Grable include stakes winner Roberta’s Love, who drew the rail but could apply pressure to Pushiness, and Big Summer, who finished second in the California Distaff Handicap on the Santa Anita hill last out and has run well on dirt. The race also includes Safa, Back On Track, and Irish Wahine.

Pushiness’s trainer, McCarthy, will focus Sunday on the Betty Grable and a pair of 2-year-old maidens – improving filly Aransas Pass in race 1 and heavy favorite Uncle Evco, a colt, in race 2. McCarthy also looks forward to the return of two top fillies.

McCarthy said Grade 1 winner Sweet Azteca is “getting a little freshening” and will “come back into training” in 2025. Accuracy, who earned a 107 Beyer Speed Figure winning a maiden route by 15 lengths last out, is scheduled this weekend for her second work since that race.

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