Published Friday, August 9th, 2019   ( 4 years ago )

Anonymity, Danuska's My Girl Top Distaff Sprint

Anonymity © Benoit Photo

Anonymity, beaten a neck in the 2018 Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint, and two-time stakes-winner Danuska’s My Girl, are co-highweighted at 121 pounds versus seven distaff rivals in Sunday’s 48th running of the Grade III $100,000 Rancho Bernardo Handicap.

Anonymity, who will have leading rider Flavien Prat aboard for the six and one-half furlong dash, narrowly missed as a 31-1 longshot in the Breeders’ Cup at Churchill Downs in a valiant effort last November. The Richard Mandella-trained daughter of Tapit was out of action until this July when she was runner-up to Marley’s Freedom in the Great Lady M at Los Alamitos.

Danuska’s My Girl, to be ridden by Geovanni Franco, won the Las Flores and Desert Stormer at Santa Anita last spring, but was fourth most recently in the Great Lady M, two lengths behind Anonymity.

Opposing the co-highweights will be Yuvetsi, the 2018 Rancho Bernardo winner who will have Ruben Fuentes in the saddle at 119 pounds; stakes-winning Show It N Moe It, Victor Espinoza, 118; Kram, an invader from Sunray Park in New Mexico, with Mike Smith, 117; Exuberance, Joe Talamo, 118; Lady Ninja, a winner of three of her last four starts, Drayden Van Dyke, 118; Zusha, Tiago Pereira, 115, and Best of Me, a stakes-winner at Emerald Downs in Washington, Rafael Bejarano, 118.

Eight races are scheduled Sunday, with the opener at 2 p.m.