Majestic Heat ready to defend title in Solana Beach
Majestic Heat, a 5-year-old daughter of Unusual Heat, was among eight older fillies and mares entered Sunday for Friday’s 24th running of the Solana Beach Stakes. The $150,000 test for California bred or sired runners is at 1 1/16 miles on the Jimmy Durante Turf Course.
Owned by Madeline Auerbach and partners and trained by Hall of Famer Richard Mandella and ridden by Flavien Prat, Majestic Heat hung on to beat Tiz a Kiss by a nose in last year’s Solana Beach. Prat will be aboard again for Majestic Heat’s first start since November 6 of last year, a fifth-place finish in the Grade II Goldikova Stakes.
“We gave her some time off to rest and deal with some physical issues,” Auerbach said. “She’s gotten ready amazingly quickly so we thought we’d give her a chance to defend in the race. The timing is never perfect, but she’s doing really well.
The field from the rail: Moonless Sky (Kent Desormeaux), Majestic Heat (Flavien Prat), Qiaona (Evin Roman), Starlite Style (Joe Talamo), Lynne’s Legacy (Victor Espinoza), How Unusual (Norberto Arroyo, Jr.,), Dressed to a T (Mario Gutierrez) and Shehastheritestuff (Rafael Bejarano).
DEL MAR-BASED HORSEMEN HAVE A GOOD SATURDAY IN SARATOGA
It was a successful sojourn to Saratoga for Del Mar-based trainers on Saturday.
Simon Callaghan saddled American Gal for San Diegan Kaleem Shah to win the Grade I $500,000 Test Stakes. Bob Baffert’s Faypien was second and Peter Miller’s Chalon fourth in the seven-furlong sprint for three-year-old fillies.
Earlier on the program, Mike Puype-trained Argentine-bred Estrechada took the Grade III $200,000 Fasig-Tipton Waya stakes, a 1 ½-mile turf marathon.
Callaghan has Placido (6-1) in the La Jolla Handicap here today. Puype’s representatives are Exotic Ghost (15-1) in the sixth and Vow’s Son (15-1) in the ninth.
NOMS PORTEND INTERESTING MATCHUPS IN STAKES NEXT WEEKEND
A dozen 2-year-old colts have been nominated for the Grade II $200,000 Best Pal Stakes next Saturday looking to reinforce favorable impressions from one or two career starts. Eight older fillies and mares have been nominated for the Grade III $100,000 Rancho Bernardo Handicap the following day to conclude the fourth week of the racing season.
Run Away, 2-for-2 and coming in off a victory in the Santa Anita Juvenile Championship on July 3, is the likely favorite. Trained by Simon Callaghan for Kaleem Shah, the Kentucky-bred son of Run Away and Hide, has withstood pace duels and pulled away late in both races to date.
Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert has won the Best Pal seven times, among them last year with Shah-owned Klimt. Baffert has nominated Serengeti, an Oklahoma-bred son of Algorithms who was an 11-length winner on June 25 at Santa Anita in very fast time in his second career start.
Bill Spawr-trained Skye Diamonds, fresh off victory in the Grade II Great Lady M Stakes at Los Alamitos on July 8, will merit strong consideration in the 6 ½-furlong Rancho Bernardo. The 4-year-old daughter of First Dude has career earnings of nearly a half-million dollars from 15 lifetime starts.
Entries will close and post positions will be drawn Wednesday for the Best Pal and Thursday for the Rancho Bernardo.
CLOSERS – Happy Birthday to trainer Ben Cecil, 49 … Trainer Vladimir Cerin is giving Follow Me Crev, runner-up in the Gold Cup at Santa Anita in May and third in the Suburban at Belmont Park last month, some time off … Trainer Jerry Hollendorfer, enumerating options for Songbird to the Daily Racing Form, gave three: the Pacific Classic on August 19 here, the Personal Ensign at Saratoga a week later or the Zenyatta at Santa Anita on September 30 … Selected works from 210 on dirt and 26 on turf officially timed Sunday morning: Dirt – Ashleyluvssugar (4f, :48.80), Ocho Ocho Ocho (4f, :53.80), Bendable (5f, :59.00), Big Score (5f, 1:01.00), Giant Expectations (5f, :58.40), Gormley (5f, :59.40) and Abbey Vale (6f, 1:15.20); Turf – Big John B (4f, :51.20), Goodyearforroses (4f, :49.60), Bowies Hero (5f, 1:04.80), Hunt (5f, 1:03.60) and Itsinthepost (7f, 1:29.00).
Source: Del Mar Thoroughbred Club