Sorrento a scramble between good-looking first-start winners
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DEL MAR, Calif. – Summertime fillies whose careers have barely started begin to sort themselves out Saturday in the Grade 3 Sorrento Stakes at Del Mar.
The favorites in the season’s first graded stakes for 2-year-olds in California each has just one career start – debut winners Benedetta, Dreamfyre, and Dua. Based on speed figures, they all look the same. They might look a little different after the six-furlong Sorrento, race 6 on Saturday.
“The [second] race, that proves how good they are,” Benedetta’s owner Kaleem Shah said last weekend while watching workouts at Del Mar. “We let the filly do the running, and the talking. So far, so good.”
In fact, Benedetta was very good against Los Alamitos maidens; she won by three lengths under a hold. The win was flattered when runner-up Tambo won next out. And yet Benedetta’s speed figure offers no advantage. Her debut number is virtually the same as her Sorrento rivals.
Benedetta earned a 71 Beyer Speed Figure; Dreamfyre earned a 71 defeating colts in a stakes race at Pleasanton; Dua earned 73 defeating maidens at Del Mar. Five others in the Sorrento field include maidens Feisty Mitole, Motet, and Ur in Trouble. Any could run in a maiden race on Sunday. Last-out maiden winners Vinos Angel and Kythira also entered the Sorrento.
Benedetta was the first juvenile starter this year for Shah, whose half-dozen 2-year-olds include highly regarded Billal, a Street Sense colt training at Saratoga with Bill Mott, and similarly well-regarded Bartholdy, a Mendelssohn colt at Del Mar with Simon Callaghan, who trains Benedetta.
Shah purchased Benedetta, by City of Light, at a 2-year-old sale. “Obviously, she worked fast” – 9.80 seconds – “that’s what I like,” Shah said. Callaghan and adviser Ben McElroy added more incentive. “Those guys liked the physique and conformation. They pick, I pay,” Shah joked.
Purchased for $750,000 at auction, Benedetta will have a new rider for the Sorrento. Victor Espinoza inherits the mount from Juan Hernandez, who will ride Dua again for Bob Baffert. Benedetta, from the outside post, with solid workouts at Del Mar, might be the horse to beat.
Dua pressed her way to a debut victory at five furlongs, which is a short distance for a 2-year-old by Arrogate. “And she was being pushed the whole way, that’s not her style,” Baffert said. He believes Dua prefers to settle early and rally late. Dua, owned by Amr Zedan, drew post 3.
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The Sorrento was shortened to six furlongs in 2018; it was 6 1/2 furlongs the previous 25 years. Baffert has won the Sorrento seven times; Callaghan won the race twice, including in 2018 with Shah-owned Bellafina.
While maiden winners Benedetta and Dua top the locals, a shipper from Northern California enters with the top figure. O.J. Jauregui trains Dreamfyre, who earned her figure in a stakes.
Dreamfyre debuted in the $75,000 Everett Nevin Stakes at Pleasanton and ran them off their feet. She won by 3 1/2 lengths and will try to become the second straight Everett Nevin winner to take the Sorrento, following Vegas Magic. Hector Berrios rides Dreamfyre.
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