'Pretty special' filly Bellafina exits Del Mar Debutante in good order

Bellafina and Vasilika, winners of the Del Mar Debutante and John C. Mabee Stakes on Saturday, had some things in common. They were both ridden by jockey Flavien Prat and both appeared to come out of the efforts in good shape on Sunday morning.

Bellafina stood tall and energetic with her head over the webbing of her stall at the Simon Callaghan stable. Saturday’s Grade I victory was her second in three career starts and went well with the Grade II Sorrento accomplished here on August 5. The $180,000 winner’s share of the purse boosted her earnings to $308,000 for owner Kaleem Shah.

The Kentucky-bred daughter of Quality Road was purchased for $800,000 at the Fasig-Tipton sale in March.

“I said to Kaleem she’s the best filly I’ve trained,” Callaghan said. “She’s pretty special and I think she’s going to keep getting better.”

Vasilika made a big stretch run under Prat for a 1 ½-length victory over Cambodia that spoiled Cambodia’s bid to accomplish a Yellow Ribbon Stakes/John C. Mabee double for the second year in a row.

Vasilika, 4-year-old Kentucky-bred daughter of Skipshot, won her sixth straight race and has only lost once in eight starts since being claimed for $40,000 by Hall of Fame trainer Jerry Hollendorfer.

“Just got lucky on that one,” Hollendorfer said. “We were looking for a horse and picked out that one. I’d trained Skipshot.”

Hollendorfer assistant Dan Ward said Sunday morning that Vasilika came out of the race well, as did beaten Debutante favorite Brill.

“If there’s a reason for the bad race, we’ll try and we’ll find it,” Ward said. “But soundness wasn’t it. She’s fine and I guarantee that if you took her out there this morning she’d breeze in 1:26.”

The winning time for the seven-furlong Debutante was 1:25.51.