Union Strike has final work in preparation for Del Mar Debutante
DEL MAR, Calif. - In late June, weeks before the start of the current Del Mar summer meeting, trainer Shelbe Ruis rated Union Strike as the best 2-year-old in her stable.
Two months later, Union Strike’s status is unchanged.
Union Strike will give Ruis, 25, on Saturday her first starter in a Grade 1 race in the $300,000 Del Mar Debutante for 2-year-old fillies. The Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante will be the stakes debut for Union Strike, who was second to American Cleopatra in a maiden race at Del Mar on July 31 in her first career start.
American Cleopatra, a full sister to 2015 Triple Crown star American Pharoah, is part of the Del Mar Debutante field. Union Strike is the only maiden among seven probable starters, which is not a concern to Ruis.
“I know she hasn’t broken her maiden, but she’s just as good as the other fillies,” Ruis said Sunday morning.
“I think she has a lot of talent. If she can be calm in the gate, she can be right there. Since day one, she’s been very classy.”
Union Strike worked a half-mile in 48 seconds on Sunday, her final major exercise before the Del Mar Debutante. The filly, by Union Rags, is owned by Shelbe Ruis’s parents, Mick and Wendy, and was purchased for $375,000 at the Ocala Breeders’ Sale of 2-year-olds in training in April.
Mick Ruis was an active buyer at 2-year-old sales earlier this year, stocking his daughter’s stable with more than $2 million in acquisitions. Races such as the Del Mar Debutante were firmly in the family’s plans.
“We expected to have something good enough to be in there,” Shelbe Ruis said.
American Cleopatra is one of three Debutante hopefuls trained by Bob Baffert, along with the maiden race winners American Gal and Noted and Quoted. Other probable starters are Champagne Room and Miss Southern Miss, who were first and second in the Grade 2 Sorrento Stakes at 6 1/2 furlongs Aug. 6, and the well-regarded maiden race winner Morganite.
Ruis, who began training earlier this year, will run Midnight Pleasure in the $300,000 Del Mar Futurity on Sept. 5. Midnight Pleasure beat maidens in a 20-1 upset in his debut July 24.
Midnight Pleasure is part of a projected field of four that includes the maiden race winners Chasing Aces and Straight Fire, and Klimt, who won the Grade 2 Best Pal Stakes at 6 1/2 furlongs Aug. 13.
Union Strike is a more likely winner than Midnight Pleasure, Ruis said.
“I like her chances for the Debutante more than the colt for the Futurity,” she said.
Chasing Aces is trained by Peter Miller, who said the colt may be his only runner in the Grade 1 Futurity. He said Big League, second to Klimt in the Best Pal, is more likely to run in the $100,000 Barretts Juvenile at Los Alamitos on Sept. 18.
Big League and Chasing Aces are owned by Rockingham Ranch.
“We have a very good horse in Chasing Aces,” Miller said on Sunday. “Why run them against each other?”