Sweet Azteca © Benoit Photo
Sweet Azteca is back to defend her crown this Sunday in the G3 Rancho Bernardo, a 6 ½ furlong dash for fillies and mares.
Last year Sweet Azteca went off at 1-9 and ran like it, easily handling five other rivals and winning by seven lengths. The daughter of Sharp Azteca is back this time to take on four aspiring hopefuls and has been made the 2/5 morning line favorite.
Sweet Azteca is coming off of a Grade 2 win in the Great Lady M at Los Alamitos last month where she beat Kopion, a talented mare out of the Richard Mandella barn. Kopion had won five of her seven prior races and further flattered Sweet Azteca when she ran second to Seismic Beauty in the G1 Clement L. Hirsch earlier this month.
The Great Lady M was Sweet Azteca’s 5-year-old debut. She was coming off a nine-month layoff during which time she had moved from trainer Michael McCarthy’s barn to Richard Baltas, who doesn’t appear daunted by the high expectations for his horse.
“There’s pressure on every race,” Baltas claims. “Look, I know that it’s her race to lose and so there’s a lot of pressure that way, but that being said she’s doing good, she’s got a good post and all systems are go.”
Sweet Azteca’s never been one to back down from a good fight on the front end. Her win in the Great Lady M and last year’s Rancho Bernardo were both wire-to-wire victories. Even her only race around two turns, a win in the G1 Beholder Mile last year, was gate-to-wire. All of which puts the Breeders’ Cup in her future.
“If she runs good here we’ll point her to the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint,” Baltas says.
Four rivals look to pull off the upset starting with trainer Mark Glatt’s Formula Rossa, who’s undefeated after two races. She broke her maiden at Santa Anita in February by four lengths then returned and won an entry level allowance race at Del Mar by six lengths.
“We’ve been very high on her from day one,” Glatt says. “We’ll find out more about her by tomorrow.”
Formula Rossa is the daughter of Vekoma, winner of the 2019 Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland and the 2020 Met Mile at Belmont Park.
Chismosa will take another try at Sweet Azteca. The Cal-bred daughter of Clubhouse Ride has faced Sunday’s odds-on favorite four times and beaten her once. That was in last year’s G3 Las Flores at Santa Anita. Chismosa ran second to Sweet Azteca in last year’s Rancho Bernardo and ran third to her in this year’s Great Lady M.
Visually will be returning to the dirt after running all of last year and this year on the grass. She ran a close third in the Daisycutter turf sprint at Del Mar last month.
“She works really well on dirt,” trainer Librado Barocio explains. “Just to be honest I think we’re the third best horse. Of course Sweet Azteca is a dynamo and the Glatt horse seems to have a lot of potential.”
Longshot Donttellourwives rounds out the field.
It’s the 54th running of the Rancho Bernardo, named after the community about 30 miles east of Del Mar. It will be Race 2 on the nine race Sunday program. Probable post is 2:30 p.m.
Here’s the field from the rail out with the jockeys and morning line odds: Chismosa (Kyle Frey, 5-1); Donttellourwives (Diego Herrera, 20-1); Formula Rossa (Antonio Fresu, 3-1); Visually (Armando Ayuso, 15-1), and Sweet Azteca (Juan Hernandez, 2/5).