Published Thursday, August 20th, 2020   ( 3 years ago )

Seven Soph Fillies Set to Battle in Torrey Pines

Harvest Moon | Benoit Photo

Harvest Moon © Benoit Photo

Seven 3-year-old fillies will match strides at Del Mar Saturday in the 43rd edition of the Grade III, $100,000 Torrey Pines Stakes as part of a five-stakes bonanza afternoon of racing worth more than $1-million in purses.

Topping the group in the one-mile testing will be Bamford or Tabor’s Uncle Mo filly Harvest Moon. The bay Kentucky-bred, who races out of the barn of trainer Simon Callaghan, has only started three times and never run versus stakes competition, but appears to have found a spot right in her wheelhouse in the Torrey Pines.

All three of Harvest Moon’s starts have been at a mile, most recently at Del Mar in an allowance race that she won smartly on July 27. She was handled by top rider Flavien Prat that day and the Frenchman is back up Saturday as they break from Post 3 in the compact field. The filly’s “numbers” have risen with each of her starts and she certainly appears ready to take on stakes competition.

Here’s the lineup for the Torrey Pines from the rail out with riders and morning line odds:

Feghali, Faghali or Mathiesen, et al’s Paige Anne (Juan Hernandez, 12-1); Pam and Martin Wygod’s Secret Keeper (Abel Cedillo, 7/2); Harvest Moon (2-1); Brown or Halasz’s Sheza Girly Girl (Tiago Pereira, 12-1); Bolton, Hoyeau or Mathiesen, et al’s Aurelia Garland (Umberto Rispoli, 4-1); Speedway Stable’s Provocation (Mike Smith, 9/2), and HRH Prince Sultan Bin Mishal Al Saud’s Merneith (Victor Espinoza, 5-1).

Secret Keeper is a homebred daughter of Into Mischief who has won her only two starts in good fashion. She captured an allowance sprint here on July 25, beating several of the fillies she’ll face Saturday. This will be the bay’s first outing around two turns.

Aurelia Garland is in from the Midwest to try her luck in the Torrey Pines. The Constitution filly most recently ran second in the Iowa Oaks going a mile and one-sixteenth at Prairie Meadows on July 5. The Kentucky-based miss has been training at Keeneland since.

Provocation chased home Secret Keeper on July 25 in her most recent try. Like Secret Keeper, she’s a daughter of the prolific sire Into Mischief and has the added pizzaz of racing out of the prolific barn of trainer Bob Baffert.

The Torrey Pines is the second of five stakes slated to be held Saturday. It will go as race No 4 on the 11-race program that kicks off at 2 p.m.