Sweet Azteca carries heavy load as big favorite in Rancho Bernardo

DEL MAR, Calif. – Short fields and short prices are recurring themes in the Grade 3 Rancho Bernardo Handicap, a filly-mare sprint likely to follow historical precedent Sunday at Del Mar.

Sweet Azteca figures odds-on in the 6 1/2-furlong Rancho Bernardo, won by favorites the past four years, and 15 of the last 24. Michael McCarthy trains Sweet Azteca, a Grade 1 route winner over Adare Manor two back at Santa Anita followed by a 106-Beyer Speed Figure crusher in a Grade 2 sprint at Los Alamitos.

Owned and bred by Pamela Ziebarth, Sweet Azteca is the 126-pound highweight in the seven-runner Rancho Bernardo. By historical standards, it’s a big field. Since 2000, average field size is six.

What’s not average is her weight assignment. Sweet Azteca will be the first Rancho Bernardo starter this century to carry 126 pounds, five more than Chismosa. Still, anything short of a decisive victory by 4-for-5 Sweet Azteca will be a surprise. She is simply faster than her rivals.

The field includes allowance winner Anywho, who seeks a return to form after a misfire at Los Alamitos. Stakes winners Chismosa, Tom’s Regret, and Ascendancy are entered, along with outsiders Vitalera and Irish Wahine.

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Flavien Prat is in from New York to ride Sweet Azteca. It could have been the other way around, with Sweet Azteca flying to New York where she would have been among the favorites in the Grade 1, $500,000 Ballerina Stakes on Saturday at Saratoga. Her trainer opted to keep her home.

“We gave a lot of thought to going back there,” McCarthy said. “One’s a Grade 1 for half a million, the [Rancho Bernardo] is a Grade 3 for $100,000. I think, ultimately, the difference was the Breeders’ Cup is held here in November.”

Sweet Azteca, who has worked exceptionally well over the Del Mar surface, drew post 5 and figures to get a front-running or pace-pressing trip outside rail-drawn Tom’s Regret. Late-running multiple stakes winner Chismosa will rally.

The lineup is not quite Breeders’ Cup caliber, but the ultimate goal for Sweet Azteca is the BC Filly and Mare Sprint on Nov. 2. at Del Mar. The leading BC Filly and Mare Sprint candidates will run this weekend – Vahva in the Ballerina and Sweet Azteca on Sunday at Del Mar.

If the Rancho Bernardo favorite runs as expected, the question is who will finish second. It could be anyone, or Anywho. Her trainer, John Sadler, has won the Rancho Bernardo a record seven times, but Anywho finished eighth by more than 15 lengths last out at Los Alamitos.

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“I’m going to give her a pass, because Los Al is Los Al,” Sadler said, referring to the quirky track on which horses sometimes misfire for no apparent reason. Sadler recalls 2021.

“Edgeway ran bad at Los Al and came down here and won this race,” he said. “I know [Anywho] has quality.”

Anywho, a 3-for-8 allowance filly ridden by Juan Hernandez, could “win” by finishing second. A graded-placing would be a résumé-builder for the Hronis Racing-owned filly. But the likely winner of the Rancho Bernardo is Sweet Azteca, a short price in a short field.

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