DEL MAR — Sometimes, when a really promising young horse wins a big race, Bob Baffert feels an emotion that’s not quite elation.
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Miss Monica is just such a horse and the Grade I Del Mar Debutante on Saturday was just such a race.
“I’m relieved” is how Baffert put it in the winner’s circle after Miss Monica pulled away to a 6-1/4-length victory with jockey Juan Hernandez to stamp her as a North American championship contender in the 2-year-old fillies division.
The Hall of Fame trainer said he has seen “crazy things happen” and heavy favorites get beaten, so he took nothing for granted even though the $850,000 daughter of Early Voting had won her debut impressively last month and was a 2-5 favorite in the Debutante.
“I knew she’s a special filly, and I knew that if she got the right kind of trip, she should win,” Baffert said. “It’s like I ran (Triple Crown winner American) Pharoah and (Kentucky Derby winner) Justified — I was just relieved that everything went well.”
Miss Monica, owned by Mike Pegram, Karl Watson and Paul Weitman, paid $2.80 after covering 7 furlongs in 1:23.54. Crazy Hot Mess closed well to finish second at 25-1. Holmby, Baffert’s other horse, was third in the field of nine.
Hernandez kept Miss Monica in the clear on the outside from post position 8, caught pacesetters Fast Amy and Panda Listen on the turn for home, and was four lengths clear in mid-stretch.
“When I came up to those other two, we just went right on by,” said Hernandez, who leads the Del Mar meet with 11 stakes wins.
The win was Baffert’s third in a row and 13th since 1995 in the Debutante. Sunday, he’ll go for his sixth straight and 20th since 1996 in the Grade I Del Mar Futurity with Hughes and Domus.
Baffert didn’t say if Hughes, 4-5 on the morning line, is in the special category of horses he’d be relieved to see win. That’s better said after they win.
It’s two for Juan
Hernandez had a stakes win earlier in the card, picking out a path for Observed from next-to-last in the Grade III Del Mar Juvenile Turf Stakes. Observed paid $15.40 in a field of eight 2-year-olds going 1 mile on grass. Favorite Shadow Nation ran second.
The first winning path for Observed was picked out by Jonathan Thomas, who trained the colt at Turfway Park in Kentucky and got the Mandaloun offspring’s debut victory at Horseshoe Indianapolis before shipping him to Del Mar. Thomas, sometimes based in California, hadn’t entered a horse in the state since May at Santa Anita. His past 10 victories have come at seven different tracks.
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“All credit to Jonathan Thomas,” said Aron Wellman, head of owner Eclipse Thoroughbreds. “He’s just lethal when he picks a spot. Have suitcase, will travel.”
The Tranquility Lake Stakes, Del Mar’s other stakes Saturday, saw the Richard Mandella-trained 4-year-old Magnificat ($4.80) and leading jockey Joel Rosario right themselves after a stumbling start and easily handle a field of eight fillies and mares going 1 mile on dirt.
O’Neill back on top
Doug O’Neill clinched the Del Mar leading-trainer title with two days to spare, remaining well ahead of the pack without winning a race Saturday.
It’s the sixth time in the past 23 years, but the first time since 2019, that O’Neill has saddled the most winners at the Del Mar summer meet. He also led in 2015 at the fall meet.
With 26 wins (from 111 starters), O’Neill can’t be caught because he has 11 more than Phil D’Amato, who has entrants in nine races Sunday and Monday, and 12 more than Peter Miller, who has horses in seven more races.
In the jockeys race, Rosario padded a comfortable lead by riding Magnificat and Convo ($6.60) in the third race.
Rosario has 40 wins, 33 more than Hernandez, who has 19 more mounts at the meet, and 12 more than Antonio Fresu, who has 20 more chances.
Notable
• The most lucrative performance by a Del Mar horse Saturday happened at Kentucky Downs in Florence, Ky., when Somerset West won the $1.5 million Ainsworth Music City Stakes with Luis Saez riding for trainer John Sadler. Unimpressed by her victory at 35-1 odds in the San Clemente Handicap, fans sent Somerset West off at 19-1 in the Ainsworth and saw her win by a half-length in the turf sprint for 3-year-old fillies. Favorite Cy Fair finished sixth.
• The Del Mar pick-six Saturday paid $122,880.20 to a single winning ticket, purchased at the track for $3,072. The sequence began with Big Vengeance’s $67 upset in the sixth race.
• Rain showers are possible in Del Mar on what should be a warm Sunday. AccuWeather forecasted a 55% chance of precipitation, totaling less than a tenth of an inch. It would be the first measurable rain during the meet that began July 17.