Three Hearts right at home in California

DEL MAR, Calif. – The summer heat on the East Coast threatened to ruin the career of the 4-year-old filly Three Hearts earlier this year.

In the summer of 2013 and again earlier this year, the filly suffered the effects of heat stroke after races in Virginia and New York. Barry Irwin, who directs the Team Valor International partnership that owns Three Hearts, decided to make a drastic move.

The filly was sent to trainer Neil Drysdale in California in September.

“Even though it gets hot in California, it doesn’t get crazy hot,” Irwin said by telephone Sunday from Kentucky.

The shift to a different climate has worked spectacularly. Three Hearts won her California debut in Saturday’s Grade 3 Red Carpet Handicap over 1 3/8 miles for fillies and mares at Del Mar, her first stakes win. She has found a home in California.

“We kept her in training to win any kind of stakes,” Irwin said. “Now, she looks like she’s competitive.”

Three Hearts was a 29-1 outsider in the Red Carpet. She had finished fourth in her previous start in an optional claimer Sept. 1 at Saratoga before being sent to Drysdale. Irwin admits he was skeptical of her chances in the Red Carpet.

“I thought it was ambitious to run in this race,” he said. “I asked my wife, ‘Why aren’t we in an allowance race?’ In retrospect, she’s training better than she did last year.”

For the Red Carpet, Three Hearts raced without blinkers for the first time in her 14-race career. She has three wins and career earnings of $192,249.

Irwin and Drysdale said they will focus Three Hearts on turf marathon races. Opportunities are limited for fillies and mares at 1 1/4 miles or beyond in Southern California, which could lead to a start against males in 2015.

Three Hearts was one of two Team Valor horses sent to Drysdale earlier this year along with the European filly Emerald Star, a stakes winner in England earlier this year. Irwin hopes that Emerald Star can be effective on the hillside turf course or over a mile at Santa Anita this winter.

Those horses are the latest in a string of runners Irwin and Drysdale have campaigned over the years. Irwin noted Saturday’s win occurred on the 27th anniversary of Political Ambition’s win in the Hollywood Derby at Hollywood Park for Drysdale.

Back then, Irwin’s racing partnership was known as the Clover Racing Stable.

** The Del Mar autumn meeting ends Nov. 30 with a program highlighted by the $300,000 Matriarch Stakes for fillies and mares over a mile on turf. The Grade 1 Matriarch Stakes is likely to have a small field.

As of Sunday, the candidates were Discreet Marq, Kadaya, La Tia, Queen of the Sand, and Strathnaver. Gender Agenda and Sheza Smoke Show are other possible starters.

Queen of the Sand, trained by Paddy Gallagher, is unbeaten in two starts on the turf course here this year – an allowance race in August and the minor Kathryn Crosby Stakes over a mile Nov. 7. On Sunday, Queen of the Sand worked five furlongs on turf in 1:02.60. Jockey Mike Smith, who rode Queen of the Sand in the Kathryn Crosby Stakes, was aboard for the workout.