Thistledown: Caviar N Champagne seeks to make Bartolo Memorial her third straight victory

Caviar N Champagne goes for her third consecutive win when she returns from a two-month layoff in the $50,000 Rose Debartolo Memorial for fillies and mares at Thistledown on Sunday afternoon.

The 4-year-old Caviar N Champagne won the six-furlong Mike Mackey Memorial on June 8 and followed up three weeks later by winning the J.W. Petro Memorial going the same 1 1/16-mile distance as the Debartolo. Both stakes wins came locally. Trained by Jeff Radosevich, Caviar N Champagne has had a freshening since that event but has been working forwardly for her return, including a pair of bullets since Aug. 14. Scott Spieth retains the mount.

The 9-year-old Pay the Man won the DeBartolo four times between 2007 and 2011 and missed by a neck in 2010. All those good performances came when the DeBartolo was contested at 1 1/8 miles.

Seventh in last year’s DeBartolo, Pay the Man will be looking for her first win of the year off a solid second-place finish in the Vivacious at Beulah Park on Aug. 11. Trained by Miguel Feliciano, Pay the Man is nearing the million-dollar mark in lifetime earnings with $967,696. Ricky Feliciano will ride.

Startin Something won the Debartolo last year at 1 1/8 miles. Trained by Tim Hamm, Startin Something has only one win this season, in the Classen Memorial locally on May 3. She followed that up with a third in the Mackey Memorial and a pair of seconds in the Petro and Lewis memorials. All four races were at Thistledown. Most recently, Startin Something finished fourth in the Vivacious at Beulah. Jose Garcia will ride for the first time.

Small Town Flirt, Uptown Gal, and Isadella also are entered.