Short, But Sweet Field for DMR Debutante

Even though 'TDN Rising Star' Chasing Yesterday (Tapit) has been shipped cross-country for Saturday's GI Spinaway S., three of the five fillies signed on for the GI Del Mar Debutante have legitimate claims to become marquee horses now and into the near future.

Bellafina (Quality Road) gets the nod on experience, even if she is the one of the 'big three' to not have broken her maiden first time out. The $800,000 Fasig-Tipton March juvenile ran well, but not well enough, to be second on her July 4 debut at Los Alamitos, but connections never lost confidence, equipped her with blinkers for the Aug. 5 GII Sorrento S. and she obliged with a 4 1/4-length success, with Boujie Girl (Flashback) just nosed out for second. The Kaleem Shah runner tuned up for the Debutante with a bullet (1/62) five furlongs in 1:00 2/5 Aug. 24. Trainer Simon Callaghan and jockey Flavien Prat won last year's race with 'TDN Rising Star' Moonshine Memories (Malibu Moon).

Brill (Medaglia d'Oro) topped the 2017 Fasig-Tipton July sale on a bid of $1 million from Larry Best's OXO Equine, and the bay increased her value incrementally with a powerful 1 1/4-length defeat of future Sorrento runner-up Del Mar May (Jimmy Creed) in a five-furlong maiden on opening day July 18, good for the 'Rising Star' designation. The bay was out to breeze the morning after Bellafina and was the morning's fastest over five-eighths, clocking :59 4/5 to best 49 other workers at the distance. Drayden Van Dyke, on the cusp of his first Southern California riding title, opts to stay here.

Joe Talamo replaces Van Dyke atop Mother Mother (Pioneerof the Nile), a $450,000 Keeneland September purchase bred-like American Pharoah-from a Storm Cat-line dam. The dark bay become one of five 'TDN Rising Stars' for Bob Baffert at Del Mar this summer with a towering 6 1/2-length tally July 22. A May foal, she worked six furlongs in a best-of-four 1:12 4/5 Aug. 21 and five furlongs in 1:00 4/5 (5/45) six days later.