Tamara Princess reigns in Torrey Pines

DEL MAR, Calif.- Unbeaten Tamara Princess dragged jockey Mike Smith to the front on the final turn of the $81,400 Torrey Pines Stakes at Del Mar on Friday and cruised to a third straight victory.

A half-sister to 2000 champion older female Riboletta, Tamara Princess won her first stakes in the Torrey Pines, restricted to 3-year-old fillies that had not won a first-place purse of $50,000 at a mile or over this year.

Tamara Princess ($4.60) ran a mile in 1:36.18, finishing two lengths in front of Cindy's Hero, the winner of the Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante in 2000. Smith said Tamara's Princess move at the end of the backstretch, while stalking Notable Career was her own doing.

"That was her," Smith said. "Everytime we got to a pole, it was like she was asking. 'Now?' And I thought, 'No.' Then at the quarter pole, she said, 'I'm going without you.'"

Tamara Princess led by four lengths in midstretch and was not threatened late. Cindy's Hero finished 3 1/2 lengths in front of Warren's Whistle, who was followed by Irguns Angel and Notable Career. The Torrey Pines was Notable Career's first start since finishing fifth in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies last November.

Tamara Princess is owned by Aaron and Marie Jones and trained by Eduardo Inda. She will race at Belmont Park in the fall, but will not try to emulate her older half-sister, who was supplemented to the 2000 Breeders' Cup Distaff

but finished unplaced in the final start of her career.

"She's not going to the Breeders' Cup," Aaron Jones said of Tamara Princess. "I've had enough of paying them. I think the tariff is too high."