Vegas Magic lacks big Beyers, but brings perfect record to Debutante
An unusually high rate of attrition among California 2-year-old fillies will not prevent the Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante from being run as scheduled Saturday, even if the list of notables who will miss the race is nearly as deep as the list of actual entrants.
The Debutante field includes romping maiden winner Home Cooking, who could start favored over maiden winner And Tell Me Nolies and two-time stakes winner Vegas Magic. Those three will try to mitigate the shortage of 2-year-old fillies.
Impressive debut winner Justique got sick, missed training, and will wait for Santa Anita fall. Stakes winner Stone Silent had a knee chip; Absolutely Zero needs time after a hind ankle lit up on a scan; Grade 2-placed Procrastination is out with an unspecified issue; and stakes winner Tom’s Regret changed trainers and is unraced in three months.
Remaining in the seven-furlong Debutante are eight fillies, including a pair of maidens who ran well enough first out to be considered contenders. Those are debut runner-up Kissed by Fire and debut third Ice Dancing. The Debutante field also includes Satin Doll, Fast and Shiny, and Florida shipper Arella Star.
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Vegas Magic is not the fastest on numbers, but the 3-for-3 filly is the most accomplished.
“She’s one of those that wants to beat you,” trainer Doug O’Neill said. “Those are hard to find. I was very happy and surprised the way she’s won her last two races.”
Following a debut victory at Santa Anita, Vegas Magic won the Everett Nevin Stakes against boys at Pleasanton and the Grade 2 Sorrento at Del Mar with a 72 Beyer. Abel Cedillo rides Vegas Magic, who breaks from the rail. Based on her last-out win, the rail is not a major concern. She raced inside in the Sorrento, angled out, and won going away.
O’Neill also starts relatively unseasoned Satin Doll, a distant fourth in the Sorrento.
“She was inside horses,” O’Neill noted, which was opposite her outside-trip debut win. “This early in their career, sometimes they’re more comfortable being outside horses. I know it’s losing ground, but she’s more comfortable being outside.”
Kyle Frey rides Satin Doll.
And Tell Me Nolies finished fourth to Satin Doll first out, then added blinkers and improved significantly second out. She pressed the pace inside, repelled the odds-on favorite, and won by a neck with a 73 Beyer, second-highest in the Debutante field.
“The blinkers seemed to move her up, and she also needed her first start,” trainer Peter Miller said. “I was really impressed [with her maiden win]. She was down inside the whole way and really fought hard.”
Ramon Vazquez rides And Tell Me Nolies, whose forwardly placed running style could play well in a field without a ton of speed.
Ice Dancing, a maiden, enters as an upset candidate for trainer Richard Mandella, who said the Debutante was always under consideration.
“I told [owner Ramona Bass] that if she won her first race, I planned to run her back in the Debutante,” Mandella said.
Ice Dancing did not win, but she ran well.
“I had Mike [Smith] take her back and finish, and it was a pretty nice effort,” Mandella said. “And she’s trained very smart since, so I’m going to take a shot.”
Flavien Prat rides Ice Dancing, who will try to emulate recent Debutante winners Union Strike (2016) and Bast (2019). Both lost maiden races first out and won the Debutante second time out.
Smith will ride potential Debutante favorite Home Cooking for trainer Bob Baffert, who removed blinkers after a pace duel contributed to her odds-on debut loss. Baffert said blinkers off were “to get her to relax a little bit, that’s what you want them to do. You hate to be one-dimensional.”
Second time out, Home Cooking ran like a different filly. She took dirt inside, angled out, and won by more than nine lengths with a 76 Beyer that tops the Debutante field. Baffert also starts 61-Beyer debut winner Fast and Shiny.
The Debutante is race 8 on an 11-race Saturday card. Race 7 is the $100,000 Del Mar Juvenile Fillies Turf; race 9 is the Grade 2 John C. Mabee Stakes.