Vogue Girl should handle distance

Vogue Girl, unbeaten in her first two starts, both sprints, moves up in class and stretches out to a mile for Saturday's $100,000 Blue Hen Stakes for 2-year-old fillies at Delaware Park.

Trainer Allen Iwinski said he is confident that Vogue Girl, a daughter of Souvenir Copy, will handle the extra distance, based on her pedigree and a report jockey Ramon Dominguez gave him after her last race.

"Her family all could stretch out," Iwinski said. "Her half-brother, Scrimshaw, could not do a mile and a quarter, but he certainly could handle a mile and a sixteenth."

The 3-year-old Scrimshaw, third in this year's Preakness, sixth in the Belmont Stakes, and 11th in the Kentucky Derby, won the Grade 3 Lexington, a 1 1/16-mile stakes at Keeneland.

Iwinski also was impressed by what Dominguez had to say after Vogue Girl's neck victory over first-level allowance fillies on Oct. 7.

"When Ramon got off the horse, the first thing he told me, without knowing our plans, was, 'This is one horse, when she stretches out, she is really going to do better,' " Iwinski said. "He described her as a filly with a great long stride who is easy to rate and will definitely go two turns."

Vogue Girl's rivals in the field of 12 include From Away, winner of back-to-back stakes for trainer Michael Matz; New York-based Sisti's Pride, runner-up to From Away in the one-mile Irish Sonnet; and Patriots Image, an 8 1/2-length winner against maidens going a mile on Oct. 11.

The sleeper could be Quiet Down, who needed five starts to win her maiden, but did so impressively, wiring a group of 10 by 8 1/2 lengths in a one-mile race on Sept. 30 while equipped with blinkers for the second time.

The runner-up in that race, Shamoiselle, came back to win a one-mile maiden race by 5 1/2 lengths last Sunday.

"With 2-year-olds this time of year, you never know," said trainer Graham Motion. "The timing is good to take a shot in a race like this."