Baffert seeks elusive Clement Hirsch victory with Vale Dori

Conspicuous by its absence on the list, however, is Sunday’s $300,000 Grade I Clement L. Hirsch Stakes, in which Baffert will send out Vale Dori to take on defending race champion Stellar Wind.

Vale Dori, a five-year-old Argentine-bred mare owned by Sheikh Mohammed bin Khalifa al Maktoum, has already done commendable work in adding previously unconquered stakes to Baffert’s collection. Last summer she was a 3 ½-length winner in the Tranquility Lake and came back in the Bing Crosby fall meeting for a three-length score in the Bayakoa Handicap.

The Bayakoa was the second of six straight wins, five in graded stakes, for Vale Dori. The streak was snapped with a neck loss to Stellar Wind in the Grade I Beholder at Santa Anita on June 17.

So, why no Hirsch for Baffert? For one, the older filly and mare division, of which the 1 1/16-mile Hirsch often determines the meet champion, hasn’t been a strong suit for him here. At Del Mar, the Baffert organization’s emphasis is on developing younger equine talent (12 Futurity and seven Debutante wins), sprinters (10 combined Bing Crosby and Pat O’Brien wins) and regionally prominent handicap runners (four Pacific Classic wins).

“Have I run anybody in that before?” Baffert asked Saturday morning before scanning the Hirsch records page to refresh his memory. Eventually, his eye struck upon his only in-the-money finisher, Tough Tiz’s Sis, third to Zenyatta in 2008, the first of three straight wins for Zenyatta.

A year later, the Hirsch was elevated to Grade I status, which since then has been maintained by the quality of competition and performances like those of Beholder and Stellar Wind the past two years.

“It wasn’t as big a race when I had Silverbulletday and the other good fillies in the 1990s,” Baffert said. “So we used to send them back east.”

The Hirsch is a “Win and You’re In” qualifier for the $2 million Longines Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Del Mar on Friday, November 3.

The field from the rail: Motown Lady (Kent Desormeaux, 12-1), Vale Dori (Mike Smith, 7-5), Stellar Wind (Victor Espinoza, 6-5), Autumn Flower (Martin Pedroza, 15-1), Shenandoah Queen (Drayden Van Dyke, 20-1) and Faithfully (Rafael Bejarano, 4-1).