Vasilika puts winning streak on the line in Del Mar's Matriarch
Vasilika, putting an eight-race winning streak on the line, drew the No. 9 post in a field of 14 and was established as the 7-2 favorite Friday on oddsmaker Russ Hudak’s morning line for Sunday’s Grade 1, $300,000 Matriarch Stakes on the final race card of the year at Del Mar.
Hall of Famer Jerry Hollendorfer trains and is a part owner of Vasilika, a 4-year-old daughter of Skipshot he claimed for $40,000 in February and has saddled through the current winning streak, the last three being Graded stakes, among them the Grade 2 John C. Mabee here on September 1.
“Just got lucky on that one,” Hollendorfer said with typical understatement after the Mabee. “We were looking for a horse and picked out that one. I’d trained Skipshot.”
Two of trainer Chad Brown’s trio of imports – Uni (9-2) and Rymska (5-1) – are the second and co-third morning line choices. They drew the two outside posts for the one-mile turf run. Uni has won three straight races, progressing to the Grade 3 level; Rymska has four wins, three at the Grade 3 level, and one runner-up by a nose in her last five starts.
“Uni is a really nice one, I love her,” Brown assistant Jose Hernandez said. “She’s always there and she’s going to be tough. I don’t know as much about Rymska, I haven’t been around her as much, but the record speaks for itself.”
The field from the rail: Excellent Sunset (Rafael Bejarano, 30-1), Valadorna (Mike Smith, 15-1), Fahan Mura (Edwin Maldonado, 12-1), Mopotism (Geovanni Franco, 20-1), Quidura (Jose Ortiz, 8-1), Ms Bad Behavior (Tyler Baze, 20-1), Daddy Is a Legend (Manny Franco, 20-1), Insta Erma (Drayden Van Dyke, 12-1), Vasilika (Flavien Prat, 7-2), Mission Impassable (Florent Geroux, 5-1), Luminoso (Evin Roman, 30-1), Dona Bruja, (Declan Cannon, 8-1), Uni (Joel Rosario, 9-2) and Rymska (Irad Ortiz, Jr., 5-1).
Post time is 6:30 p.m. ET.