Unique Bella Beyer for Hirsch bumped to 100

When Unique Bella won the Clement Hirsch Stakes July 29 at Del Mar, she earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 93 – much lower than her usual good performances. But the number was consistent with the data for the other races on the card – all of them sprints.

After Wednesday’s card at Del Mar, we had to re-evaluate Unique Bella’s race and subsequently upgraded the figure to 100. The times for the sprints on Wednesday were normal for Del Mar, but the three one-mile races were all unusually slow, with a respectable field of maiden special weight colts running in 1:40.24 and lesser maidens running in 1:42.15 – the slowest one-mile time of the meeting, by far.

We don’t have an explanation for the fact that the Del Mar track was producing slow times in two-turn races, but we are now confident that this phenomenon affected Unique Bella’s time and that the Clement Hirsch deserved a higher figure.

– Andrew Beyer