Yellow Ribbon a pivotal race for Hillhouse High

DEL MAR, Calif. – Hillhouse High ran a career-best race in winning the Grade 2 Royal Heroine Stakes at a mile on turf at Santa Anita in April. She was unable to duplicate that effort when sixth in the Grade 2 Distaff Turf Mile at Churchill Downs on May 6 and was given a vacation for the remainder of the spring.

Three months later, Hillhouse High will start in Saturday’s Grade 2 Yellow Ribbon Handicap at 1 1/16 miles on turf for fillies and mares at Del Mar. The $200,000 Yellow Ribbon will determine how ambitiously she is campaigned in the coming months.

The Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf at 1 1/8 miles will be held here Nov. 4 at a distance a furlong shorter than recent runnings at Santa Anita. That race could be a goal if Hillhouse High delivers another career-best performance in the Yellow Ribbon.

“I don’t know if she’s good enough,” trainer Richard Baltas said. “If she wins, she’d have a chance.”

Baltas trains Hillhouse High for Golden Eagle Farm. A 6-year-old mare, Hillhouse High won her first graded stakes in the Royal Heroine. The loss in the Distaff Turf Mile on a “good” turf course was caused by a combination of factors, Baltas said.

“At Churchill Downs, there was a lot of rain that week,” Baltas said. “I don’t know if she liked the soft turf. She got shuffled back. I decided to give her a little break after that.”

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Hillhouse High, who has won 4 of 24 starts and earned $444,113, will not be favored in the Yellow Ribbon. Avenge, third in the BC Filly and Mare Turf at Santa Anita last November, leads a field expected to include Amboseli, Cambodia, Frenzified, Juno, Kiss Me Now, and Pretty Girl.

The Yellow Ribbon is one of two Grade 2 stakes on Saturday’s program, along with the $200,000 Sorrento Stakes for 2-year-old fillies at 6 1/2 furlongs.

The Sorrento will be the first meeting between the unbeaten Surrender Now, who won the Landaluce Stakes at Santa Anita on July 2, and Diamondsandpearls, a sharp maiden winner at Santa Anita on July 2 in her debut.

Other candidates are Dancing Belle, Midnight Summer, Spectator, Spirit of Shanghai, and Terra’s Angel.