Baffert wins 10th Del Mar Debutante (G1) with Grace Adler

Grace Adler cruised to a 11 1/4-length victory in Sunday’s $300,000 Del Mar Debutante to give Bob Baffert his 10th victory in the seven-furlong contest for 2-year-old fillies.

With Grace Adler’s stablemate Eda in a wicked speed duel early on, Grace Adler set well off the quarter-mile of :21.78 and half-mile in :44.37. Grace Adler came with a huge move around the turn, going five-wide to swoop to the lead. Leveling off very nicely, she flew through the stretch to win with jockey Flavien Prat easing her up late. 

“Grace Adler is a really good filly and when she started to make her move, you could tell by Trevor Denman’s voice that she was really making up the ground,” said Baffert. “They’re both good fillies, it’s just too bad that Eda got caught up in a speed duel. It was set up for Grace Adler.” 

Grace Adler is owned by Willow Grace Farm and Michael Lund Petersen and now has two wins in as many starts, while earning $222,000.

Grace Adler’s win broke Baffert’s tie with Wayne Lukas for Debutante victories. Sunday’s win was his third straight in the race, a feat he also accomplished in 1997-9.