Adare Manor wins Clement L. Hirsch Stakes at Del Mar
DEL MAR — Adare Manor, whose previous five victories had come in gate-to-wire fashion, was taken out of her element Saturday in the $400,000 Grade I Clement L. Hirsch Stakes for fillies and mares at Del Mar.
It didn’t matter, though. Class prevailed when the 3-5 favorite ran down pacesetter Elm Drive in the stretch to score a one-length victory over the fast-closing Desert Dawn for the first Grade I victory of her career.
“I was hoping to be on an easy lead, but I knew the one (Elm Drive), she’s a really fast filly,” winning trainer Bob Baffert said. “Juan (jockey Juan Hernandez) just stayed close to her. Sort of took our filly out of her game a little bit by doing that. At the end, she’s a big, long-jumping filly and she was just getting going there at the end.”
Final time for the 1 1/16 miles over the main track was 1:43.33.
Elm Drive, who has never won at two turns, carved out fractions of 23.31, 46.68 and 1:11.30 under Ricardo Gonzalez. She opened up a one-length lead at the top of the stretch and looked like she might keep going, but Hernandez had Adare Manor on the move and gradually wore down Elm Drive, who relinquished the runner-up spot to Desert Dawn at the end.
Kirstenbosch finished fourth and Fun to Dream, also trained by Baffert, brought up the rear in the five-horse field.
“I was disappointed in my other filly,” Baffert said. “I thought she’d run better than that.”
Adare Manor, a 4-year-old daughter of Uncle Mo, won for the sixth time in 12 starts and padded her career bankroll to $861,600 with her first victory at Del Mar in two tries. It was her fourth consecutive victory, all with Hernandez aboard, and gave her four graded-stakes wins.
“I was like, ‘I hope she starts picking it up a little bit quicker,’” Baffert said as he watched Elm Drive lead into the stretch. “That other filly was running really well. The other filly ran a big race. I was just hoping the class would prevail and it did at the end.
“You can’t let ’em get too far (in front), otherwise at Del Mar they’ll keep on going and next thing you know they got 19 lengths on you like last year (Flightline in the Pacific Classic).”Hernandez said Adare Manor broke a bit slowly, which has been uncharacteristic of the filly since her first race at Santa Anita in October 2021.
“I let her be quiet a little bit and save her energy,” he said. “At the quarter pole I asked her to pick it up and she exploded again to the wire. She is a big filly. Sometimes it takes a couple jumps to keep her momentum.”
The obvious main goal for Adare Manor is the Breeders’ Cup Distaff, which will be run at Santa Anita on Nov. 4. Baffert said the connections will probably give her a prep in the Grade II Zenyatta Stakes at Santa Anita on Oct. 1.
“She loves Santa Anita. That’s her favorite track,” Baffert said. “We’ll give her a prep there and just enjoy her.”