Mohaven © Benoit Photo
It worked last year. An up and coming Cal-bred filly named Om N Joy stepped up into the G3 Torrey Pines at Del Mar and won the race. It was her fifth win in a row and the beginning of bigger and better things for the daughter of Om. She would win the G2 Santa Margarita Stakes, run second in the G1 Clement Hirsch and run a decent fourth behind the powerhouse Knightsbridge in the G1 Pacific Classic.
This year two more talented Cal-bred Fillies are taking a shot at the Torrey Pines hoping they too can catch lightning in a bottle and proceed with the kind of year Om N Joy has enjoyed post-Torrey Pines.
Mohaven was thought by many to be the top Cal-bred filly running when she went to the post in the $150,000 Fleet Treat Stakes at Del Mar last month. She went off as the odds-on favorite and led almost every step of the way. Until the end when She’s No Quant came surging late to steal the show and relegate Mohaven to second place.
“She ran her race, she just got beat,” trainer John Sadler notes. “The other filly outran her but she ran well in defeat. She likes this track so we’ll give her another go in the Torrey Pines.”
Mohaven came into the Fleet Treat off a pair of dominating wins. She won the six and a half furlong $125,000 Evening Jewel in April by five lengths then came back and captured the mile and a sixteenth $125,000 Melair Stakes in May by six lengths, both in wire-to-wire fashion.
“You look at her record she runs well every time even if she doesn’t win,” Sadler points out. “She’s ready to go. A little tougher race. Most of her stakes wins are in Cal-bred company but the filly that just beat her is a Cal-bred so she deserves to be in there and she doesn’t have a lot of conditions so it’s the right spot.”
Sadler has won the Torrey Pines six times, four in a row from 2007 to 2010. Mohaven has only been out of the money once in eight lifetime starts and that was when Sadler gave her a try on turf. She has two wins and three seconds in five starts at Del Mar.
She’s No Quant has won three straight including the Fleet Treat last time out. She’s a daughter of Pavel, who has produced several winners at Del Mar this summer. She’s No Quant broke her maiden in May and won an entry level allowance in June. Both of those races were at Santa Anita and both were on the turf. Her connections decided to give her a try on the dirt in her stakes debut and she passed with flying colors.
“I think it was very impressive,” trainer Edward Freeman says about the Fleet Treat victory. “She overcame a fair bit of trouble. She bobbled at the gate and was bothered around the turn by the other Sadler horse. She had every reason to find that difficult to overcome and she overcame it. She ran down Mohaven as if a mile would not be a problem.”
The Torrey Pines is a mile on the main track.
“There aren’t many opportunities left to run against 3-year-old fillies,” Freeman continues. “At this stage you’re either good enough or you’re not, whether you were bred in California or in the Bluegrass.”
Freeman says he’s well aware of Om N Joy’s success in last year’s Torrey Pines.
“I don’t want to be compared, we’re just trying to do our own thing,” Freeman says with a laugh. “We’ll find out if she’s good enough. She beat the best Cal-bred filly last out so we’ll take a swing.”
Of course lurking close by is Bob Baffert, an eight-time winner of the Torrey Pines dating back to 1998. He may be looking for a little redemption from last year when his brilliant filly, Tenma, got beat by Om N Joy in the Torrey Pines. The daughter of Nyquist had won the G2 Santa Anita Oaks earlier in the year and had run fourth in the G1 Kentucky Oaks.
This year Baffert brings Rabeeba, a daughter of Curlin, who is undefeated after two starts. She broke her maiden at Los Alamitos in June and captured an entry allowance race at Del Mar last month at the one mile distance.
“She’s improving with every race,” Baffert states. “I’m just trying to develop her. This will tell a lot about how she’s progressing. Hopefully she can keep moving forward because she’ll have to run against older after this.”
A field of seven is expected for the 49th running of the Torrey Pines. It’s Race 7 on the nine-race card Sunday. Probable post time is 5 p.m.
Here’s the field from the rail with the jockeys and the morning line favorites: Bank Shot (Adrian Escobedo, 10-1); She’s No Quant (Antonio Fresu, 3-1); Rabeeba (Juan Hernandez, 8/5), Channel Place (Kazushi Kimura, 12-1); Mohaven (Emisael Jaramillo, 7/2); Kinzlee’scharisma (Tiago Pereira, 8-1), and Wolf Hill (Joel Rosario, 8-1).