Bellafina Starts 2019 Sprinting in Santa Ynez

Kaleem Shah's multiple grade 1 winner Bellafina didn't show her best in the Tito's Handmade Vodka Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1)—her final start of 2018—but after taking some time off, she'll start her 3-year-old campaign back home in the $200,000 Santa Ynez Stakes (G2) Jan. 6 at Santa Anita Park.

The Quality Road  filly entered the Juvenile Fillies off three eye-catching graded stakes wins in Southern California—including the Del Mar Debutante Stakes (G1) and Chandelier Stakes (G1)—by a combined 15 lengths, but she didn't start well at Churchill Downs in November and finished fourth, 9 1/4 lengths behind runaway winner Jaywalk.

BALAN: Bellafina Dominant Again in Chandelier

"She's better than that run. It was definitely disappointing," said trainer Simon Callaghan. "She showed a little bit in season after the race, and there were no physical things, but she got bumped a bit at the start—it was just a combination of things. I don't want to make excuses, but I believe she's better than that."

After a few weeks of light training, she got back to breezing at the end of November, and the seven-furlong Santa Ynez, which only drew a field of five, turned out to be a good spot for Bellafina to start back up, even if rain is in Sunday's forecast. Although she had no issues taking the 1 1/16-mile Chandelier at Santa Anita in September, her first two stakes scores came sprinting.

"We backed off her after the Breeders' Cup and just jogged her for a few weeks—gave her a little bit of time to catch her breath," Callaghan said. "We've slowly been building her back up and like what we've seen. She's doing really good, and it's a good race to get her back on track."

The main threat to Bellafina is another speedy filly, the Bob Baffert-trained Mother Mother, who came up a neck short of her first graded score in the Dec. 8 Starlet Stakes (G1) at Los Alamitos Race Course and was a well-beaten second to Bellafina in the Del Mar Debutante.

Rounding out the field are maiden winner and Darley Alcibiades Stakes (G1) runner-up Reflect, fifth-place Starlet finisher Sold It, and last-out Golden Gate Debutante Stakes winner Tomlin.

Tomlin, who is trained by the Northern California-based Steve Specht, has done most of her running on the Golden Gate Fields synthetic track but does have dirt experience. Her maiden win came sprinting on the main track at Santa Rosa.

The Santa Ynez is the first race of 2019 to award qualifying points to this year's Longines Kentucky Oaks (10-4-2-1, to top four finishers).

Entries: Santa Ynez S. (G2)

Santa Anita Park, Sunday, January 06, 2019, Race 8

• Grade II
• 7f
• Dirt
• $200,000
• 3 yo Fillies
• 4:04 PM (local)

PP	Horse	Jockey	Wgt	Trainer	M/L
1	1Mother Mother (KY)	Drayden Van Dyke	120	Bob Baffert	9/5
2	2Bellafina (KY)	Flavien Prat	124	Simon Callaghan	4/5
3	3Sold It (KY)	Mario Gutierrez	120	Doug F. O'Neill	8/1
4	4Tomlin (KY)	Tyler Baze	120	Steven Specht	8/1
5	5Reflect (KY)	Kent J. Desormeaux	120	J. Keith Desormeaux	6/1