Quality Road's juveniles making their mark

Quality Road had a career year in 2017, siring Eclipse Award champions Abel Tasman and Caledonia Road. His momentum has continued this year with a strong summer with his 2-year-olds, capped by Bellafina’s victory in the Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante.

Bellafina, who finished second in her debut, won her maiden in the Grade 2 Sorrento Stakes. She won the Debutante by 4 1/4 lengths last Saturday.

Quality Road, an Elusive Quality horse who stands at Lane’s End, was also represented by a stakes-winning juvenile on the opposite coast this summer, as Stillwater Cove won the Bolton Landing Stakes on the Saratoga turf. Stillwater Cove, a Keeneland debut winner in the spring, had previously finished off the board in the Group 3 Albany Stakes at Royal Ascot.

Quality Road’s other stakes-performing juveniles over the summer were Ellis Park Juvenile winner Tobacco Road; Roadster, an impressive Del Mar maiden winner who finished third in the Grade 1 Futurity on Monday, the meet’s closing day; and Good Good, who was third in the Skidmore Stakes at Saratoga.