Del Mar Debutante Winner Grace Adler Attempts Rebound

Grace Adler , who starred at Del Mar last summer, when she won a maiden race and the TVG Del Mar Debutante (G1) by 11 1/4 lengths, reappears there July 28 among a cast of six in the fifth race, an $84,000 second-level allowance optional claimer.

Unraced this year and coming off two rear-half finishes in graded stakes that wrapped up her 2-year-old season, the daughter of Curlin   faces a stiff test in the six-furlong dash. Three of her rivals are Midnight Memories , unbeaten in two starts; Dance to the Music , recently stakes-placed in the Desert Stormer Stakes (G3); and Slammed , a five-time stakes winner vs. New Mexico-breds.

Owned by Willow Grace Farm and Michael Lund Petersen, Grace Adler has trained swiftly at Santa Anita Park and Del Mar leading up to her return for Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert. She adds Lasix; the entire field races with the diuretic, which is used to prevent respiratory bleeding.

Florent Geroux rides the chestnut, whom Baffert freshened after she was fifth in the Chandelier Stakes (G2) at Santa Anita and sixth in the Starlet Stakes (G1) at Los Alamitos Race Course.

Baffert also runs Midnight Memories for owner/breeders Mike Pegram, Karl Watson, and Paul Weitman. 

Midnight Memories, adding blinkers and with Juan Hernandez up, is the 9-5 morning-line favorite, ahead of Grace Adler and Dance to the Music, both 5-2, and Slammed at 3-1.