Saturday's notable 2-year-old maidens: 7th at Del Mar

August 1st, 2015

Del Mar's 7TH race, 5 1/2 furlongs for fillies (8:10 p.m. EDT)

Several of these maidens are nominated to the Del Mar Debutante (G1).

One Last Shot doesn't have a $230,000 catalog page, but she commanded that amount at OBS April after drilling a bullet quarter-mile in :20 4/5 at her under tack show. Notably, her Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert also has the best runner by her sire Any Given Saturday, Grade 1 hero Hoppertunity. Her immediate family isn't memorable, but she was produced by Grade 3-placed stakes victress Tequilas Dayjur, whose first named foal won at two. The Debutante nominee could be ready to win early for Speedway Stable, which owns top turf mare Hard Not to Like.

Hall of Famer Jerry Hollendorfer sends out Debutante nominee Seaside Glory, a nicely bred daughter of Speightstown and Gripsholm Castle, who was runner-up in the 2010 La Canada (G2). Gripsholm Castle is herself the result of a marriage of opposites, being by Dynaformer and out of multiple Grade 2-winning one-turn specialist Randaroo. Like stablemate Songbird, a smashing debut winner last Sunday, Seaside Glory has drawn the rail.

Forever Darling fetched a scant $8,000 as a Keeneland September yearling, but she left that well behind when attracting a bid of $65,000 at OBS April. That didn't reach her reserve, so the sellers thought she was worth even more. Her pedigree certainly is. By Congrats, she's out of multiple stakes winner Darling My Darling, second in both the Frizette (G1)  and Matron (G1) during her two-year-old campaign. Darling My Darling is a Deputy Minister half-sister to Japanese Horse of the Year and sire Zenno Rob Roy. Part-owned by trainer Richard Baltas, the Debutante nominee picks up Rafael Bejarano.

Corps de Ballet makes her debut for Simon Callaghan. The Arnold Zetcher homebred is another by Speightstown, and her dam, Private Banking, is a multiple stakes winner on turf. That's as you'd expect for a French-bred daughter of Anabaa from a thoroughly European family. Although a Debutante nominee who could be surface-versatile, Corps de Ballet might migrate to turf eventually.

Both of Peter Miller's entries are Debutante nominees. Oh Great Idea is from the first crop of past Del Mar juvenile star J P's Gusto, and her dam is already responsible for nine winners, led by the stakes-placed Drift King. Shakti, a Run Away and Hide filly out of stakes-placed juvenile River Barrow, is drawn on the opposite side of the field out in post 10.

Two Steps of Glory is not engaged in the Debutante, but the Mark Casse juvenile has an interesting pedigree. Sire Two Step Salsa has sadly lost both of his stand-out performers to fatal injuries, Dance With Fate and Conquest Two Step, in their prime, and he deserves another flagbearer. Her dam, the Concerto mare Concert Quest, sports the Rasmussen Factor: by a Danzig-line sire and herself tracing to Danzig's female line, Concert Quest is thereby inbred to the matron *Petitioner.

The three also-eligibles still in the picture:

Miss Priss, a $150,000 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky October yearling, is a Debutante nominee. The Broken Vow filly is a half-sister to multiple Grade 2 winner Zavata, himself a prominent juvenile. Another near relation is I Spent It, winner of last year's Saratoga Special (G2). Under her third dam, one finds multiple Grade 1-winning millionaire Dixie Union. The Jim Cassidy pupil may improve with this debut under her belt, but she does bring a solid pedigree.

The Jeff Bonde-trained My Dynamo, a Debutante nominee, is by Discreetly Mine and out of Grade 3-winning turf mare Dyna Da Wyna from a superb family (Honey Ryder, Dominus et al.)  Touch and Smile (not in the Debutante), a $250,000 daughter of Ghostzapper and a Meadowlake mare, has been working sharply for Wesley Ward.

 

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