Del Mar: On 6-race win streak, Eda headlines Rancho Bernardo
On a six-race winning streak, Grade 1 winner Eda was assigned the top weight and drew widest in the field of eight for the 52nd Grade 3, $125,000 Rancho Bernardo Handicap on Sunday at Del Mar.
Owned by Charles Chu’s Baoma Corporation and trained by Bob Baffert, the 4-year-old daughter of Munnings will carry 124 pounds, three to eight more than any of the other fillies and mares in the 6 1/2-furlong race on the main track. Del Mar’s leading jockey Juan Hernández will ride Eda for the fifth time in a row.
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Usually a frontrunner or close stalker, Eda began her winning streak in the black-type Anoakia Stakes on Oct. 24 at Santa Anita. Then came triumphs last fall in the Desi Arnaz at Del Mar and the Starlet (G1) at Los Alamitos before a winter break. Eda picked up where she left off by winning Santa Ysabel (G3) and an allowance race, both at Santa Anita, before her victory July 4 in the Great Lady M (G2) at Los Al. During the streak her wins have spanned distances from six furlongs to 1 1/16 miles.
Baffert also entered 3-year-old Honor Code, last year’s Del Mar Debutante (G1) runner-up who will be ridden out of post 2 by Joe Bravo and will carry 116 pounds. Baffert’s previous Rancho Bernardo wins came with Behaving Badly in 2005 and 2006.
With a record seven victories in this race including the last two with Edgeway, trainer John Sadler will add blinkers to Kirstenbosch, who got the rail post and 121 pounds including jockey Héctor Berrios. The 4-year-old Midnight Lute filly has not won since Jan. 15, when she prevailed by a nose in the La Cañada (G3) going 1 1/16 miles at Santa Anita.
Lady T, who won the Las Flores (G3) on New Year’s Eve, came back from a nearly six-month break last month to come in first in a Del Mar allowance race. John Shirreffs trains the 4-year-old Into Mischief filly who was assigned 120 pounds. Mike Smith will ride her from post 3.
The National Weather Service said a partly cloudy, 74-degree day will greet the field for the Rancho Bernardo, which will start Sunday after 9 p.m. EDT. It is the ninth of 10 races with the first post at 5 p.m.