Win and you're in: Alexandrina leads Gran Premio Pamplona

Alexandrina leads a field of 17 fillies and mares in Sunday’s Group 1 Gran Premio Pamplona (G1) over 1 1/4 miles at Hipodromo de Monterrico. The winner will receive an automatic starting position and fees paid into the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf via the Breeders’ Cup challenge series.

Trained by Eduardo Pianezzi for Stud El Tri, Alexandrina comes into the race off a dominant 1 1/2-length victory the May 26 Clásico República Argentina (G3) at 1 1/4 miles over the Monterrico course. The 5-year-old daughter of Singe The Turf has eight wins in 22 starts on the turf at Monterrico, including three last year.

Among the challengers are the third- and fourth-place finishers from the Clásico República Argentina: Stud Jet Set’s 3-year-old Fiel Estrellita and Stud Dos Gio’s 5-year-old Raika. Both runners are trained by Juan Suarez Villarroel, one of the world’s leading trainers, who has collected more than 10,000 victories in his career.

Fiel Estrellita, a daughter of Il Campione, has raced five times this year, starting with a seven-furlong allowance win in January. She has been in the money in four of those five outings. She chased Alexandrina in second from the start and into the final furlong of the Clasico República before being nosed out for the runner-up spot at the wire, finishing 1 3/4 lengths behind the winner.

The 5-year-old Raika finished third in last year’s Gran Premio Pamplona, and was the runner-up in 2022, finishing a length behind Olafecta. A daughter of Minister’s Joy, Raika finished third on April 7 in the listed Clásico Ernesto Ayulo Pardo at 1 1/4 miles over the course. In November 2022, she defeated Alexandrina in a 1 1/4-mile allowance race at Monterrico.

A third Villarroel starter is Stud Paracas’s 3-year-old Boudica, who returned to the races June 1 after a six-month layoff with a fourth-place finish in a 1-mile allowance race at Montericco. A filly by The Lieutenant, Boudica has finished in the top three spots eight times in 10 starts, including a victory in the 2023 Clásico Postin (G2) when she finished third by a neck, but was moved up to first through disqualification of the first two finishers.

Also of interest is Stud Juan De Arona’s Macanuda, bred in Kentucky by Don Alberto Corporation. Since beginning her career last November, the 3-year-old daughter of Noble Mission has been in the money in all six of her starts, and has two victories. In her most recent start at Monterrico she finished second, 1 1/2 lengths behind Queen Sienna in the listed Clasico Ernesto Ayulo Pardo, and ahead third-place finisher Raika.