Brill, Mother Mother, Bellafina Meet in Debutante

The 2-year-old winners have been so good this summer at Del Mar, and the margins have been so wide, it's a common talking point to discuss which has been the best.

During the final weekend of the meeting, much of that will be decided on the racetrack.

The issue of top 2-year-old filly on the grounds should be settled Sept. 1 in the $300,000 Del Mar Debutante Stakes (G1). The field is short, but the quality is certainly there, and the likely favorite is the filly who broke her maiden by the shortest margin.

OXO Equine's million-dollar purchase Brill, who won her debut by 1 1/4 lengths July 18 at five furlongs, should relish the extra two furlongs in the Debutante as well as her eventual stretch out to two turns. In her better-than-it-looks-on-paper first airing, the Medaglia d'Oro  filly trained by Jerry Hollendorfer broke a bit slow and was never comfortable as two horses from the outside crossed in front of her, and jockey Drayden Van Dyke had to encourage the bay to get into the race in the turn—but she still won with those factors working against her.

Van Dyke also rode Debutante entrant Mother Mother to her debut win July 22 at Del Mar for trainer Bob Baffert, who will seek his eighth victory in the race with jockey Joe Talamo aboard. Van Dyke will remain on Brill.

"This race is pretty salty," said Baffert, who sent another talented 2-year-old filly, American Pharoah 's half sister Chasing Yesterday, to Saratoga Race Course for the Sept. 1 Spinaway Stakes (G1). "They're too good to run against each other, but (Mother Mother) has been doing well. It's been a while since she raced, but I didn't want to run her back (so quickly) in the (Aug. 5 Sorrento Stakes, G2). You break your maiden and you have to wait for stakes. It's how it is."

The Sorrento had an impressive maiden-breaking winner as well. Kaleem Shah's Bellafina—who finished second in her debut July 4 at Los Alamitos Race Course for trainer Simon Callaghan—set a fast pace and pulled away in the stretch to win the six-furlong test by 4 1/4 lengths. Sorrento third-place finisher Boujie Girl is also back for the Debutante.

BALAN: Bellafina Speeds to Sorrento Victory

Rounding out the field is the only two-time winner, Watch Me Burn. Although the Val Brinkerhoff trainee has raced at lower levels than the rest of the five-filly field, the daughter of Hold Me Back has won her last two starts—a maiden claimer and an optional-claiming starter allowance—by 5 1/4 and 7 1/2 lengths, respectively.

Entries: Del Mar Debutante S. (G1)

Del Mar, Saturday, September 01, 2018, Race 4

• Grade I
• 7f
• Dirt
• $300,000
• 2 yo Fillies
• 3:35 PM (local)

PP	Horse	Jockey	Wgt	Trainer	M/L
1	1Boujie Girl (FL)	Geovanni Franco	118	Peter Miller	8/1
2	2Brill (KY)	Drayden Van Dyke	120	Jerry Hollendorfer	8/5
3	3Watch Me Burn (KY)	Alonso Quinonez	118	Val Brinkerhoff	15/1
4	4Mother Mother (KY)	Joseph Talamo	120	Bob Baffert	2/1
5	5Bellafina (KY)	Flavien Prat	123	Simon Callaghan	9/5