Little Hidden Port Brings South American Form to Hirsch

Where else but Del Mar would a South American mare named for an exotic surfing site make her North American debut? That's what's in store Aug. 2 for Hronis Racing's Little Hidden Port , who will be unveiled to a new audience by John Sadler in the $400,000 Clement L. Hirsch Stakes (G1) at a mile and one-sixteenth on a fast main track.

A Breeders' Cup Challenge Series event, the Hirsch grants the winner an automatic, fees-paid berth to the Nov. 1 Breeders' Cup Distaff (G1) at Del Mar.

The Hirsch is presented by the Oak Tree Racing Association, and fittingly so, since Clement Hirsch was not only an original board member of the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club, but also the founding president of Oak Tree. Hirsch won the race in 1993 with Magical Maiden when it was called the Chula Vista Handicap, then renamed upon his death in 2000.

Little Hidden Port is entered to face Spendthrift Farm's Kopion , winner of the Derby City Distaff Stakes (G1) at Churchill Downs, as well as contenders from the deep bench of Bob Baffert, who has won three of the last five renewals of the Hirsch. 

It is Sadler, however, who has made the recent history of the race his personal preserve. Sadler's five Hirsch winners include Healthy Addiction (2006), Iotapa (2014), Stellar Wind  (2016 and 2017), and Ollie's Candy  (2019).

For Little Hidden Port, measuring up to Sadler's high Hirsch standards looks like a considerable challenge. But it won't be for lack of an impressive pattern of 17 workouts dating to early April of this year, logged in six- and seven-day intervals with the consistency of the dawn.

"I entered her in easier races a couple times, but they didn't go," Sadler explained, while not apologizing for a swing at the Hirsch. "So we'll get her started here at home to get a line on her, and then see about moving her around. She definitely shows she's a two-turn filly with stamina, long on dirt."

Little Hidden Port gets her name, quite literally, from her sire, Puerto Escondido , which translates in Spanish to "hidden port." For those not plugged into the surfing scene, Puerto Escondido is a small town on the south-facing Pacific coast of Mexico, once a well-kept secret among the big wave riders who would negotiate treacherous highways to confront fearsome, beach-break 20-footers and their perfect pipelines.

The town's Thoroughbred namesake is a son of Hurricane Cat (by Storm Cat) out of the Louis Quatorze mare Surf Point. Puerto Escondido was a monster of a racehorse in Argentina, where he won just about every group 1 prize worth winning, including a romp in the 2017 Carlos Pellegrini Internacional (G1). He was hands-down Argentina's Horse of the Year.

On July 1, Little Hidden Port turned 5 on the Southern Hemisphere calendar. Her true birthday is Aug. 19. She is from Puerto Escondido's first crop of around 60 foals and did not make her first start until the end of her 2-year-old season. She needed three more races to break her maiden, then ran another five times in allowance-type races before trying stakes competition at Hipodromo de La Plata, just southeast of Buenos Aires.

In the pecking order of Argentine racecourses, La Plata ranks behind both Palermo and San Isidro. Still, Little Hidden Port passed both stakes tests with flying colors, wrapping up 2024 with a seven-length victory in the Clasico Los Criadores (G2) at a mile and a quarter on the dirt last December.

At the time, Sadler had his ear keenly attuned to the South American market, and for good reason. The trainer's 2023 shopping trip to Argentina resulted in the importation of Full Serrano , winner of the 2024 Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile (G1), and Subsanador , who finished second in the 2024 Santa Anita Handicap (G1) for Sadler and Stud Facundito before being well sold to Wathnan Racing, for whom he took the $1 million California Crown Stakes (G1).

Sadler heard of Little Hidden Port's availability from the same sources and made the deal.

"I've been to Argentina several times over the last few years, and I've been very impressed," Sadler said. "It's horse country, and they love their horses. Obviously, we had great luck last year, so I went back hoping to find something again. With European prices skyrocketing, South America seems like a good place to shop.

"The owners down there believe California is a great place to promote their horses and their circuit," Sadler added. "And we do have a great tradition in California of South Americans."

The Hirsch/Chula Vista has been won by seven South Americans, including Hall of Famers Bayakoa and Paseana. Other headline names are spread across California's history, from Olhaverry and Kayak II, to Miss Grillo, Forli, Jalousie II, Lord At War, Bastonera, Siphon, Gentlemen, Sandpit, and Candy Ride  , trained by the likes of Charlie Whittingham, Ron McAnally, Henry Moreno, and Richard Mandella.  

"And don't forget, Warren Stute was part of that tradition," Sadler said.

Stute trained Figonero, the Argentine Machine who won the 1969 American Handicap on turf and the Hollywood Gold Cup Handicap on dirt in a span of eight days, then seven weeks later set a track record in the 1 1/8-mile Del Mar Handicap.

He was owned by Clement Hirsch.