Texas Red filly My Girl Red dominates Del Mar's Sorrento
Erich Brehm’s homebred filly My Girl Red showed speed from the start and won the 52nd edition of the Grade 2 Sorrento Stakes for juvenile fillies by 4 3/4 wide open lengths Friday at Del Mar.
The bay daughter of 2014 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner Texas Red – owned in part by Brehm and trained by My Girl Red’s conditioner, J. Keith Desormeaux – covered six furlongs in 1:12.12 in eased-up fashion and picked up a check for $90,000 from the $150,500 total purse.
Flavien Prat, Del Mar’s leading rider with 20 firsts in 11 days of racing, rode My Girl Red for his seventh stakes win of the meet, far and away the most by any jockey at the shore session.
Finishing second was Reddam Racing’s first-time starter Get On the Bus and running third was Tricar Stables’ Exchange Vows.
The stakes win was the first of the meet for trainer Desormeaux and his first in the Sorrento. It is his sixth stakes win at Del Mar.
“Flavien (Prat) was telling me how she was looking around and kind of lost interest the last eighth (of a mile),” Desormeaux said. “What was nice to me was that she was doing that the first quarter. I know it’s still early and the time is average. But I think she can go even quicker and I sure don’t want to complain. She has always shown signs of class and it’s nice to see one duplicate in the afternoon what we see in the mornings. Debutante is next.”
My Girl Red, a Kentucky-bred, paid $3.80 as the 9-10 favorite in the field of six fillies.
Desormeaux indicated that his charge would point next for the meet’s top offering for young fillies, the $250,000 Del Mar Debutante (G1) on Sunday, Sept. 6.
Prat won two races on the afternoon, as did riders Umberto Rispoli and Juan Hernandez.
The stakes win was the seventh of the meet (in 11 days of racing) for rider Prat and his second (2018, Bellafina) in the Sorrento. He now has 51 stakes wins at Del Mar.
“I didn’t have any special instructions; just ride her with confidence,” Prat said. “She showed speed away from there, then we got a nice breather on the turn. From there she just went on and won in hand.”