Bellafina Dominant Favorite in Las Virgenes

If you put aside all the obligatory clichés—anything can happen in a horse race, you still have to run the race, etc.—Kaleem Shah's Bellafina is supposed to win the $200,000 Las Virgenes Stakes (G2) Feb. 9 at Santa Anita Park.

She exits the Jan. 6 Santa Ynez Stakes (G2) at Santa Anita, and it would be hard to imagine a better 3-year-old debut for the Simon Callaghan-trained Quality Road  filly, who humbled a short field when she cruised to victory by 8 1/2 lengths.

Bellafina will stretch out an extra furlong, from seven furlongs to a two-turn mile, but will be facing a similar group in the Las Virgenes, including second-place Santa Ynez finisher Mother Mother and third-placed Tomlin.

BALAN: Bellafina Untouchable in Santa Ynez

And although any horseman will be happy to tell you they'd rather be 1-5 than 5-1, odds-on favoritism does bring added pressure.

"She's a highly respected filly, both by myself and the public, so there's obviously pressure for her to perform," Callaghan said of the two-time grade 1 winner, who has never gone off at a price higher than 3-1 and has been odds-on in half of her six starts. "But we go into the race believing she's doing very well, and we're hopeful for a good performance."

Callaghan also has expressed confidence in her ability to stretch out because of her past form—she won the 1 1/16-mile Chandelier Stakes (G1) by 6 1/2 lengths—as well as her sire's propensity to produce two-turn standouts (see: City of Light , Abel Tasman, Spring Quality, Salty, and Paved).

While Mother Mother has yet to find the winner's circle for a two-turn race (her win in the Rags to Riches Stakes at Churchill Downs was a one-turn mile), the two Las Virgenes entrants who have yet to face Bellafina have run their best races around two turns.

Enaya Racing's Enaya Alrabb nearly spoiled trainer Bob Baffert's party at Los Alamitos Race Course Dec. 8, when she edged Mother Mother by a neck for second in the Starlet Stakes (G1) but missed the win at 30-1 odds when she hit the wire a head behind another Baffert entry, Chasing Yesterday. The Uncle Mo  filly's grade 1 placing came after she graduated by 2 1/2 lengths in a one-mile maiden special weight race in October at Santa Anita.

Mark DeDomenico, George Todaro, and trainer Jerry Hollendorfer's Calf Moon Bay has also found recent success at two turns since she finished second to Enaya Alrabb in her maiden-breaking win. The Bodemeister  filly took a maiden special weight at Los Alamitos Dec. 14 by five lengths, then scored a first-level allowance by a nose Jan. 11 at Santa Anita. Both races were two-turn mile races.

Entries: Las Virgenes S. (G2)

Santa Anita Park, Saturday, February 09, 2019, Race 5

• Grade II
• 1m
• Dirt
• $200,000
• 3 yo Fillies
• 1:35 PM (local)

PP	Horse	Jockey	Wgt	Trainer	M/L
1	1Calf Moon Bay (KY)	Joel Rosario	120	Jerry Hollendorfer	12/1
2	2Enaya Alrabb (KY)	Mike E. Smith	120	Doug F. O'Neill	4/1
3	3Bellafina (KY)	Flavien Prat	124	Simon Callaghan	2/5
4	4Mother Mother (KY)	Drayden Van Dyke	120	Bob Baffert	7/2
5	5Tomlin (KY)	Tyler Baze	120	Steven Specht	15/1