'She's a dream horse,' says Mandella after Tamara's Del Mar Debutante win
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DEL MAR, Calif. - Even after a night’s sleep, trainer Richard Mandella had Tamara on his mind all Sunday morning, a day after the filly’s easy win in Saturday’s Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante.
Mandella could not contain a smile.
“I ain’t over it yet,” he said.
The Del Mar Debutante may be the first of several stakes wins for Tamara, an impeccably bred filly who scored a brilliant performance in the $303,500 Del Mar Debutante for 2-year-old fillies.
Sent off favored, Tamara stalked pacesetter Pushiness to the turn before pulling clear to win by a convincing 6 3/4 lengths over the well-regarded maiden-race winner Laurent.
“When she started to open up, I got chills,” Mandella recalled on Sunday. “She looked so much like her mother.”
That is the highest standard for a modern filly or mare in the United States.
Tamara, by Bolt d’Oro, is out of Beholder, a 2022 Hall of Fame inductee who won 18 of 28 starts and earned $6,156,600. Racing for B. Wayne Hughes’s Spendthrift Farm, Beholder was the champion 2-year-old filly of 2012, champion 3-year-old filly of 2013, and champion aged mare of 2015 and 2016.
Hughes died in August 2021, and his family has continued in racing and breeding with Spendthrift Farm. Last month, Beholder’s 2022 foal, a colt by Curlin, sold for $4 million to Amr Zedan at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Yearling Sale. The colt is expected to be trained by Bob Baffert.
Tamara was bred and is owned by Spendthrift Farm. The filly won her debut in a maiden race at 6 1/2 furlongs on Aug. 19, overcoming a stumble at the start to win by 2 1/4 lengths.
Ridden by Mike Smith, Tamara had a better start in the Del Mar Debutante. She ran seven furlongs in 1:22.41 and earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 91.
“It was a good time on this track for a 2-year-old,” Mandella said.
Beholder was second in the 2012 Del Mar Debutante, losing by a nose to Executiveprivilege. Beholder later won a six-furlong allowance race at Santa Anita before clinching the 2-year-old filly championship with a win in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Santa Anita.
Tamara’s autumn goal is the BC Juvenile Fillies at 1 1/16 miles at Santa Anita on Nov. 3, with a potential start in the Grade 2 Chandelier Stakes at 1 1/16 miles at Santa Anita on Oct. 7 under consideration. The winner of the $200,000 Chandelier Stakes earns a fees-paid berth to the BC Juvenile Fillies.
Mandella said on Sunday he was unsure whether Tamara would start in the Chandelier.
“If it looks we should do it, we will, or we’ll go straight to the Breeders’ Cup,” he said.
For now, there was a win to enjoy. Tamara had her head out of her stall in Mandella’s stable, watching other horses being walked by. Mandella stood a distance away, admiring the filly.
“She is the sweetest thing,” Mandella said. “She’s fooling around, waiting for someone to talk to.
“So far, she’s a dream horse.”
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