Just a Smidge headlines field of 8 in Del Mar Debutante

A field of eight was entered Wednesday in Saturday’s $300,000 Del Mar Debutante, the race that determines the 2-year-old filly champion and is the penultimate of six Grade I events of the summer meeting. The Del Mar Futurity on Labor Day will close the book on Grade I events and the meeting.

Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert, a seven-time winner of the Debutante, will send out Debbie Lanni’s Just a Smidge. A Kentucky-bred daughter of Into Mischief purchased for $425,000 at a May sale, Just a Smidge won her racing debut on July 19, opening day of the meeting, and has been training forwardly with five subsequent workouts here, the last two being bullets at six furlongs, The Debutante is a seven-furlong sprint.

Just a Smidge is one of four Debutante entrants being elevated to a Grade I off one victorious start. The others are Poetic, Moonshine Memories and Gas Station Sushi.

“They’re 2-year-olds that have shown promise. It’s what we do at this time of year,” said Richard Baltas, trainer of Gas Station Sushi.

Gas Station Sushi is owned by Jason and Megan Tackitt of Bakersfield, who have a horse farm in the area and have recently increased their participation in the Thoroughbred industry. A family inside joke led to the naming of the filly, a daughter of Into Mischief purchased in March at the Ocala sale for $240,000.

Megan and daughters Ashley and Alyson noted Jason’s tendency to adventurous dining at roadside spots – “Taco trucks and things like that,” Jason said by phone Wednesday morning. Playing off that theme, a friend of the girls’ suggested the moniker for the filly.

“Some people have said she’s too good of a horse to have a name like that, but I disagree,” Jason said. “It’s different and it has grabbed some attention.”