Del Mar news: Bellafina submits local work toward Test Stakes
With owner Kaleem Shah and trainer Simon Callaghan watching from the grandstand, multiple Grade 1 winner Bellafina worked five furlongs in 1:00.40 Saturday morning at Del Mar under exercise ride Jack Stack.
Track clockers had the 3-year-old filly cruising through interim splits of :24.40, :36.80 and :48.20 while galloping out three-quarters in 1:13.60.
“Two weeks out (from a start in the Test Stakes at Saratoga) we’re just looking at it as a maintenance work,” Callaghan said before the exercise. “Probably something around 1:01 for five-eighths.”
“It went very well,” Callaghan said afterward. He indicated Bellafina would work once more here next weekend and then ship east the following Tuesday.
The Aug. 3 Test, a seven-furlong race worth $500,000, will mark Bellafina's first start since she failed as the Kentucky Oaks favorite, but also cut her back to one turn, around where she has run faster in her career. The race will be loaded with Kentucky Oaks winner Serengeti Empress and other top 3-year-old fillies pointing there.
SEVEN SET FOR WEDNESDAY’S GRADE III COUGAR II HANDICAP
The second week of the meeting kicks off Wednesday with the feature being the Grade 3, $100,000 Cougar II Handicap. The 1 ½-mile marathon, which has been used in the past as a prep for the $1 million TVG Pacific Classic, attracted seven entrants led by multiple graded stakes winner Itsinthepost.
The field from the rail: Premium Forest (Kyle Frey), Itsinthepost (Drayden Van Dyke), Zestful (Abel Cedillo), For the Top (Joe Talamo), Original Intent (Assael Espinoza), Morse Code (Richard Baltas) and Campaign (Rafael Bejarano).
CLOSERS – Selected works from 177 officially timed Saturday morning: Campaign (4f, :49.00), Giant Expectations (4f, :48.40), Ollie’s Candy (4f, :46.60), Bellafina (5f, 1:00.40), Cruel Intention (5f, :59.80), La Force (5f, 1:01.80), Cistron (6f, 1:13.80) … Del Mar joins all of racing in being saddened by the passing, at age 93, of Marylou Whitney, the renowned owner/breeder and “Queen of Saratoga.” Whitney’s Bird Town won the Kentucky Oaks in 2003 and Birdstone the 2004 Belmont Stakes. The National Thoroughbred Racing Association issued a statement saying in part: “Marylou Whitney embodied all of the best qualities of the sport to which she devoted her time, heart and resources.”