Spendarella ships and dominates the Grade 1 Del Mar Oaks

Gainesway Stable’s classy Spendarella, shipped west to seek Grade 1 gold in Saturday’s $304,000 Del Mar Oaks, got what she came after in impressive fashion, sitting third in a perfect stalking spot for jockey Tyler Gaffalione and firing in the lane to come away a 4 1/2-length winner.

The daughter of Karakontie, trained by H. Graham Motion, never looked anything but a winner in the 66th edition of the 1 1/8-mile grass test. She cleared the traffic in the 13-horse lineup of 3-year-old fillies early, then just waited for the ‘go’ signal from her rider in registering her first Grade 1 victory.

“I had a terrific trip," Gaffalione said. "She broke alertly and we took up a good spot behind the speed. When we cleared the chute, she dropped the bit and relaxed. She’s special."

Spendarella ran the distance in a good 1:47.09 to pick up a first prize of $180,000 and push her earnings mark to $596,459. It was only the fifth career start for the bay miss, but her fourth victory and her third stakes score. Her previous outing had her running second to the top European filly Inspiral at Ascot in England in June.

Bellabel finished willingly to take second, 1 1/4-lengths better than Cairo Memories.

The victory completed a nice California double for Motion. He had shipped his mare Sister Otoole with Spendarella and saw the older horse score by half a length Friday in Del Mar’s $100,000 CTT & TOC overnight stakes at 1 3/8-miles on the grass.

Spendarella, the 6-5 favorite in the Oaks, returned $4.40.

Motion previously had won the Del Mar Oaks in 2011 with Summer Soiree. It was his seventh stakes win at Del Mar. Gaffalione was scoring his second seaside stakes triumph.