Debutante The Feature At Del Mar Saturday

Although Saturday’s Del Mar Debutante Stakes won’t guarantee any of the two-year-old fillies going to the gate a spot in the Breeders’ Cup World Championships Juvenile Fillies race on November 2, 2013 at Santa Anita, it may well decide who enters the Chandelier Stakes later this month, which is a Breeders’ Cup ‘Win and You’re In’ race. The Debutante, Race 9 on Saturday’s card, has drawn a field of eight vying for a share of the $300,000 purse for the seven-furlong Grade I event.

Awesome Baby will carry the speed

Expected to be going to the front from the Debutante gate is Bob Baffert’s Awesome Baby, an easy winner first-time out in early August at 5 ½ furlongs at Del Mar. The Awesome Again filly broke quickly in that one, engaged in a brief duel through the first quarter-mile and then kicked away to win by 4 ½ lengths. Under jockey Martin Garcia, she will be stepping up considerably in competition in the Debutante, as the field includes three previous juvenile filly stakes winners in Concave, Sprouts, and She’s a Tiger.

Previous young stakes winners in the field

Top choice among those will likely be Concave, two-for-two so far in her debut season, including a win in the Grade II Sorrento Stakes, where she had an adventurous trip, racing on the rail before coming out at the top of the stretch, only to duck back inside before getting the win by a half-length. Second in that race was She’s A Tiger, who was coming off a win in the Landaluce Stakes at Hollywood Park and has two wins in three lifetime starts. Sprouts already has won three in a row, including stakes tries at both Hollywood and Del Mar.