Claimer Boujie Girl Steps Up for Sorrento at Del Mar

The connections of Boujie Girl admit to being surprised by her debut July 26 at Del Mar.

Running the $65,000 purchase by trainer Peter Miller from Gayle Woods' consignment to the Ocala Breeders' Sales Spring Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training for an $80,000 claiming tag was somewhat of a gamble, but the result from the Florida-bred Flashback  filly looked plenty professional.

First, Rockingham Ranch and David Bernsen's gray/roan runner pressed longshot leader Staythirstymyamigo, then cruised by in the turn under jockey Drayden Van Dyke. She expressed her displeasure at a couple strikes of the whip with a pair of tail swishes, but coasted to the wire 3 1/2 lengths ahead in a final time of :57.93 for five furlongs.

"After the race, we looked at the fractions and the way she did it," said Rockingham Ranch racing manager Brian Trump. "She got out and then she relaxed, then she came home in (:11.89)—got out quick, relaxed, and closed strong. And then she wasn't tired after the race at all. She did better than we expected."

Now her connections are thinking a little bit bigger for Boujie Girl and attempting a rare score in the $200,000 Sorrento Stakes (G2) Aug. 5 at Del Mar.

Highly regarded fillies abound in the six-furlong prep for the Del Mar Debutante Stakes (G1), but a maiden claimer has only won the Sorrento once since 1985 (Give Praise won the race in 2000 after she broke her maiden for a $62,500 tag by eight lengths at Hollywood Park).

"She surprised us, so we're taking a shot," Trump said. "Pete and (Rockingham owner) Gary (Hartunian) are aggressive. They always have been."

Another oddity of sorts entered in the Sorrento is Impact Thoroughbreds and Madaket Stables' Reflect, a daughter of Trappe Shot  who dominated her maiden special weight debut June 7 at Santa Anita Park by 5 3/4 lengths.

What made that performance odd is that she is trained by Keith Desormeaux, who openly admits winning first time out is not usually his intention. Look at most of the top horses he's trained—Exaggerator , Texas Red , and My Boy Jack—and you'll notice early success is not a hallmark.

"I'm usually the type of trainer that uses races to build as they run, and I tend to buy horses that peak later on, so I don't try to win first time out. But this filly is a different case," Desormeaux said of the $70,000 purchase from Cross Keys Sales' consignment to the 2017 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. "She's very precocious and very much built like a horse who can win early. You don't need to train speed. Speed is natural, and she's naturally fast, because she overcame my training ability."

Desormeaux said Reflect is built like a sprinter, but that doesn't mean he won't try to stretch her out at some point because of the way she behaves on the racetrack.

"She's got some heavy, huge hindquarters, and her stride is conducive to a sprinter, in my opinion," the trainer said. "She's built that way, her stride is that way, but in her favor is that she's very laid-back and gets into a nice rhythm during training, so I'm going to try to prove myself wrong."

Other impressive local maiden winners entered in the Sorrento include Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners' Stirred, a Shakin It Up  filly who won by 1 1/4 lengths June 21 at Santa Anita, and Reddam Racing's California-bred Dichotomy, a daughter of Square Eddie  who scored by 2 3/4 lengths in state-bred competition July 18 at Del Mar.

But there are also invaders aplenty in the field of 10.

Lothenbach Stables' Madison's Quarters, a Fed Biz  filly trained in Kentucky by Ian Wilkes, won her debut by a neck July 13 on the Arlington International Racecourse synthetic main track; Steven Bell's Dragic won her first start April 12 at Keeneland for trainer Wesley Ward but has been on the shelf since; and Sierra Racing and JS Stables' Lady Lucy will make her first start for new trainer Phil D'Amato after she broke through June 15 for William Connelly at Churchill Downs.

One filly's running lines jump off the page a bit more than the rest of the out-of-towners—George Gilbert's homebred Summerland.

By He's Tops, Summerland is the only stakes winner in the field, but both of her victories came at Hastings Racecourse. The frontrunning filly sped to a 9 1/4-length victory in her debut May 27, then used that same style to win the July 15 Spaghetti Mouse Stakes by 7 1/4 lengths. Both starts were against males.

Summerland will be trainer Phil Hall's first starter in California. Hall drove his filly from Vancouver to Sacramento July 26, then finished their trip to Del Mar July 27.

"There was an allowance race up there (at Hastings) for her Monday, but I didn't know if it was going to go. I didn't know if there would be enough entered against her," Hall told the Del Mar publicity department. "I had two fillies for that race, so I figured (the Sorrento) would be a good test for her."

Rounding out the field are a pair of maidens who performed well at disparate prices in their debuts. Kaleem Shah's Bellafina, an $800,000 purchase and daughter of Quality Road , came in second to Katieleigh July 4 at Los Alamitos Race Course at odds of 1-2, and Calvin Nguyen's Del Mar May was runner-up to Brill at odds of 27-1 July 18 at Del Mar.

Entries: Sorrento S. (G2)

Del Mar, Sunday, August 05, 2018, Race 8

• Grade II
• 6f
• Dirt
• $200,000
• 2 yo Fillies
• 5:33 PM (local)

PP	Horse	Jockey	Wgt	Trainer	M/L
1	1Madison's Quarters (KY)	Mike E. Smith	118	Ian R. Wilkes	20/1
2	2Dragic (KY)	Rafael Bejarano	120	Wesley A. Ward	8/1
3	3Bellafina (KY)	Flavien Prat	118	Simon Callaghan	7/2
4	4Lady Lucy (KY)	Martin Garcia	120	Philip D'Amato	8/1
5	5Dichotomy (CA)	Mario Gutierrez	120	Doug F. O'Neill	12/1
6	6Summerland (KY)	Tyler Baze	118	Philip Hall	12/1
7	7Stirred (KY)	Drayden Van Dyke	120	Michael W. McCarthy	5/1
8	8Reflect (KY)	Kent J. Desormeaux	120	J. Keith Desormeaux	5/1
9	9Boujie Girl (FL)	Geovanni Franco	118	Peter Miller	6/1
10	10Del Mar May (KY)	Corey S. Nakatani	118	Richard Baltas	9/2