The connections of just four 3-year-old fillies are willing to take on two-time Grade I winner and Eclipse Award finalist Bellafina (Quality Road) in Saturday's GII Las Virgenes S. at Santa Anita, and it appears some graded-stakes black-type is the ceiling in the race that does offer points along the road to the Kentucky Oaks on a 10-4-2-1 scale.
Though she was upset at 1-2 in her career debut at Los Alamitos last summer, the $220,000 Keeneland September buyback turned $800,000 Fasig-Tipton Florida juvenile graduated in the GII Sorrento S. at Del Mar before adding open-length scores in the GI Del Mar Debutante and GI Chandelier S., the latter being her initial two-turn voyage. Off to a bad start in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies, she could do no better than fourth, losing the race and the Eclipse to Jaywalk (Cross Traffic), but she laid down a marker in her sophomore debut, defeating 'TDN Rising Star' Mother Mother (Pioneerof the Nile) by 8 ½ lengths while never out of a common gallop. She received a career-best 95 Beyer for that effort and, for good measure, the figures she earned in the Sorrento and Chandelier are also superior to any posted by her four rivals.
Enaya Alrabb (Uncle Mo) bested Calf Moon Bay (Bodemeister) to win a modestly rated Santa Anita maiden Oct. 25, but outran her odds of 30-1 to miss by just a head to American Pharoah's 'TDN Rising Star' half-sister Chasing Yesterday (Tapit) in the GI Starlet S. and Mother Mother at Los Al Dec. 8.
Tomlin (Distorted Humor), the two-back winner of the Golden Gate Debutante S., completes the quintet, having finished better than 10 lengths behind Bellafina in the Santa Ynez.
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