Sunday Rules tries sprinting five furlongs on grass
DEL MAR, Calif. – Sunday Rules, a winner of five of her first six starts, will try a new distance and surface when she competes in a third-level optional $100,000 claiming race to kick off the Sunday card at Del Mar.
Now age 4, Sunday Rules won twice here on the old Polytrack course as a 2-year-old, including a victory in the Generous Portion Stakes for California-bred fillies, and she won another statebred stakes at Santa Anita this year. Her perfect record ended in her last start, when she was third in the Grade 2 Great Lady M. at Los Alamitos.
On Sunday, she cuts back to five furlongs, the shortest distance she has ever raced, and moves to the grass for the first time.
“She’s by Tribal Rule, and they usually relish the turf,” said Phil D’Amato, who trains Sunday Rules for her breeder, Nick Alexander. “We had always wanted to try her on the grass. The timing is right, the conditions are good, and I love the post. It’s a good spot to see if she likes it.”
Sunday Rules landed post 5 in a six-horse field that also includes the stakes winners Amaranth, Home Journey, and Velvet Mesquite.
D’Amato has a second runner in the race, My Year Is a Day, who is making her first start since joining his barn. This will be her first race in almost four months.
“She’ll come running late,” D’Amato said.