Vronti ships back West for CTT and TOC Stakes

DEL MAR, Calif. – A mile and three-eighths on turf is a long distance to race, and 2,700 miles from Maryland to California is a long way for East Coast-based filly Vronti to travel.

But trainer Graham Motion and assistant Alice Clapham have streamlined the ship from Fair Hill training center to Del Mar, and on Saturday, Vronti could extend a streak. Motion won with his last four summer shippers to Del Mar. Vronti takes her turn Saturday in the $100,000 CTT and TOC Stakes.

“I hope I’m not reaching with this one, one too many times,” Motion said midweek. The trip to California is the second for Vronti in the last three months. In May, Vronti shipped from Maryland to Santa Anita to finish fifth in the Grade 1 Gamely Stakes.

“We kind of took a shot in that Grade 1, because it’s so important if you can get that black type,” Motion said.

Following the Gamely, Vronti produced a solid runner-up finish in a second-level allowance turf marathon Saratoga. Motion is hoping to enhance the residual value of Vronti.

“Obviously if she can win a listed [stakes], it’s going to be very helpful, she’s a really well-bred mare,” Motion said.

Vronti, sibling to Motion-trained Grade 2 winner Heredia, has improved as the season has unfolded. She is the 5-2 program favorite in the CTT and TOC.

Ten fillies and mares entered the 1 3/8-mile turf stakes, race 8. The field includes upset candidate Resolve, listed at 6-1, and three stakes winners trained by Phil D’Amato – Kentucky Gal, Innovative, and Pulp Fiction.

Vronti flew Wednesday from New York to California, via Memphis. Umberto Rispoli will ride Vronti, who has won two of her nine starts. Vontri could add to the list of recent Del Mar summer stakes winners trained by Motion that includes Warming, Gimme a Nother, Heredia, and Spendarella.

Resolve seeks an upset, three weeks after she finished sixth with a curious pace-pressing trip in the one-mile Osunitas Stakes. Resolve typically rallies from behind, but that did not happen in the Osunitas.

“She needs cover, and last time we couldn’t get cover,” trainer Leonard Powell said. “She got rank, and didn’t really run as well as we thought. We have [Joel] Rosario for the CTT; he’s won on her, he knows her.”

The last time Rosario rode Resolve, she won an entry-level allowance at Santa Anita. Resolve will try to turn the tables on a pair who beat her when she finished fourth as the favorite in the 1 1/4-mile Possibly Perfect Stakes in June at Santa Anita. The one-two finishers were D’Amato-trained Kentucky Gal and Innovative.

Kentucky Gal and Innovative are racing for the first time since that June 12 race; upset candidate Pulp Fiction is making her first start since early June and only her second start for D’Amato. Her seventh-place comeback in a turf mile allowance came with an alibi.

“She had the worst post you can have [10 of 10], and she lost her front shoe after the first quarter-mile,” D’Amato said. “She’s much better than looked. I really think this filly should be looked at as a contender.”

Pulp Fiction won a Group 1 in Argentina in 2024.

D’Amato is seeking his first win in the CTT and TOC; this year is the third straight in which D’Amato entered three runners. He finished second last year with Starry Heavens.