Published Thursday, August 3rd, 2017   ( 6 years ago )

Del Mar Presents Stakes Doubleheader Saturday

Avenge © Del Mar Thoroughbred Club

Del Mar Thoroughbred Club will present an attractive stakes doubleheader Saturday, co-featuring the Grade II $200,000 Yellow Ribbon Handicap for older fillies and mares and the Grade II $200,000 Sorrento Stakes for juvenile fillies. Post time for the first of ten races will be 2 p.m.

Hall of Fame trainer Richard Mandella will send out the Yellow Ribbon favorite in Kentucky-bred Avenge, winner of the John C. Mabee Stakes last summer. The daughter of War Front will have Flavien Prat in the saddle carrying highweight of 123 pounds in the mile and one-sixteenth contest over the Jimmy Durante infield grass course.

Seeking to upset Avenge will be Amboseli, 114, Victor Espinoza; Kiss Me Now, 117, Tiago Pereira; Frenzified, 116, Santiago Gonzalez; Juno, 116, Gary Stevens; Hillhouse High, 119, Corey Nakatani; Pretty Girl, 118, Mike Smith, and Cambodia, 119, Drayden Van Dyke.

Diamondsandpearls, a $1.7 million buy as a yearling, figures to be a solid favorite versus six foes in the Sorrento Stakes, six and one-half furlong prelude to the Grade I $300,000 Del Mar Debutante on Saturday, Sept. 2. The daughter of Congrats was a brilliant winner of her only start under Mike Smith.

Lining up versus the Bob Baffert-trained Diamondsandpearls will be Surrender Now, 123, Flavien Prat; Spectator, 120, Jamie Theriot; Dancing Belle, 118, Kent Desormeaux; Terra’s Angel, 118, Sasha Risenhoover; Spirit of Shanghai, 118, Joe Talamo, and Midnight Summer, 118, Edwin Maldonado.

The Sorrento Stakes is carded as the sixth race, while the Yellow Ribbon Handicap will be run as the eighth race.