Evenly Matched Six Pack Set For Mabee
Six evenly-matched older fillies and mares will tangle Sunday in what shapes up as a wide-open 55th running of the Grade II $250,000 John C. Mabee Stakes at a mile and one-eighth over Del Mar’s infield Jimmy Durante Turf Course.
Completing the Mabee line-up will be Gerald Gibbs’ All Star Heart, Brice Blanc; Charles N. Winner’s Imperialistic Diva
Nereid, trained by John Shirreffs, will wear blinkers for the first time as she seeks to get back on a winning track after three losses this year. As a three-year-old, she was one of the top members of her division, deadheating in the Grade I American Oaks and finishing third, beaten only a half-length by Summer Soiree, in the Del Mar Oaks.
Cambina, from the barn of trainer Jeff Bonde, will be dropping back in distance from the mile and one-quarter of the Beverly Hills Handicap in which she was nosed out by Capital Plan June 24. Her last success was her tie with Nereid in the American Oaks.
All Star Heart had a three-race winning streak ended when she finished eighth and last in the Royal Heroine Mile, Imperialistic Diva was seventh in the Osunitas Stakes at Del Mar July 21, Go Forth North was sixth in the Wilshire
Post time for the first race Saturday is 2 p.m., with the John C. Mabee Stakes carded as the eighth of nine races.