Spendarella looks for first Grade 1 win in Del Mar Oaks
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DEL MAR, Calif. – Pats on the back for second-place finishes at Royal Ascot only go so far with trainer Graham Motion. Sure, he’s rightly proud of how well his 3-year-old fillies, most recently Spendarella, have performed over there in the Coronation Stakes, but that Group 1 prize remains elusive.
“Look, I’m super proud of her,” Motion said of Spendarella finishing second to the high-class Inspiral, who has now won 6 of 7 after her victory last Sunday against males in the Group 1 Prix Jacques le Marois at Deauville. “I’ve never had such a reaction to finishing second. But we don’t go over there to be second. We go over there because we think we belong.”
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Spendarella’s runner-up finish there in June, though, is among the reasons she was sent here this week for the Grade 1, $300,000 Del Mar Oaks, in which she surely will be favored in a full field of 14 on the turf Saturday.
“She deserves a Grade 1,” Motion said from the Fair Hill training center, where Spendarella has been based. “It’s hugely important.”
Spendarella has done everything so far but nail down that prize. Racing exclusively on turf, she won her first three starts, including the Grade 3 Herecomesthebride at Gulfstream Park in March and the Grade 2 Appalachian at Keeneland in April, before the Coronation.
The Del Mar Oaks will mark Spendarella’s first try in a race as far as 1 1/8 miles. Motion knows she’s a proven miler – witness her efforts in the Coronation, Herecomesthebride, and Appalachian at that distance – and while he thinks the 1 1/8 miles is within her range, the lack of availability of mile races at the Grade 1 level for 3-year-old fillies puzzles him.
“It’s odd in this country that we’re restricted in the opportunities to go a mile with 3-year-old fillies,” Motion said. “I do think a mile and an eighth is within her scope.”
Spendarella goes from post 11 in the 14-horse field. Tyler Gaffalione, who rode her in the Appalachian, has the mount, and they figure to get a stalking trip from that draw.
Spendarella will have to bring her best, because several locally based fillies are coming into the race in sharp form, most notably Bellabel, who won the prep for the Oaks, the Grade 2 San Clemente going one mile, earlier in the meet July 23.
Bellabel has won three straight, including her two starts in this country after being turned over to Phil D’Amato, who has four entered in the Oaks. Bellabel drew well, landing post 2, which should afford a ground-saving trip under Umberto Rispoli.
“I thought she was 80 to 90 percent fit for the San Clemente, so I’d expect her to move forward,” D’Amato said at his barn Thursday morning. “She’s going to need to to beat the likes of Spendarella and Hess’s filly.”
Bob Hess Jr.’s filly is Cairo Memories, proven at the distance – she won the Honeymoon and Providencia, both Grade 3 races at 1 1/8 miles at Santa Anita – and back from New York after finding the competition and the 1 1/4 miles of the Grade 1 Belmont Oaks a bit beyond reach.
In addition to Bellabel, D’Amato also sends out Sixteen Arches and Island of Love – the two-three finishers behind Bellabel in the San Clemente – and Rhea Moon, making her stakes debut after finishing third to Oaks entrants Gracelund Gray and Ballet Dancing in a first-level allowance July 24.
The late running Ballet Dancing is particularly intriguing as a longshot. She was third to Cairo Memories in the Honeymoon, and should benefit from an expected faster pace here than she found in the allowance.
Txope, the most experienced horse in the race with 12 starts, makes her first start in this country and for John Sadler after winning the Group 2 German 1000 Guineas last time out. Like Spendarella, she is a proven miler who will try to extend her range to 1 1/8 miles.
Lady T will try to improve upon a fourth-place finish in the San Clemente, her turf debut.
San Clemente also-rans Lucky Girl (fifth), Tezzaray (10th), and Gold Dragon Queen (last of 12), and recent maiden winner Lady Clementine – who is stuck in post 14 – complete the field.
The Del Mar Oaks is race 8 on a 10-race card that begins at 2 p.m. Pacific.