Bob Baffert landed his 11th Del Mar Debutante Stakes with the Vino Rosso filly Bottle of Rouge on Saturday evening, as she ran down her stablemate in an epic duel in the final stretch. The winner of a maiden over the extended 6-furlongs here 4-weeks ago, Bottle of Rouge showed plenty of stamina and determination to run down the long time leader, Explora, in the final furlong. A winning time of 1:23.05 ranks 2nd in the last 10 renewals of this race, with only Tamara (2022) running a faster winning time since 2015 and that time was largely down to the front-running efforts of Explora, who opened with fractions of 11.62, 10.45 and 10.96s to get to the front. Leading the field into the far turn, she briefly extended and with just over 2-furlongs to run she held an advantage of over a length from her 2 stablemates. However, once into the home stretch, Bottle of Rouge was able to use her stamina and more importantly her longer stride to wear down her opponent, eventually running out a 1 length winner. At a peak average stride length of 25.30 ft, Bottle of Rouge recorded a figure almost a foot longer than Explora (24.31 ft) which allowed her to gain ground in the closing stages despite having to race wide around the turn to get herself on terms. The runner-up possessed the better turn-of-foot, recording higher top speed (44.22 mph) and average stride frequency numbers (2.35 per second average), but in a race run with a finishing speed of 91%, that early speed was not enough to hold off her stronger staying rival. 

The strength of this form should not be underestimated given that the 4th placed Himika, also trained by Bob Baffert, came into this race on the back of a Grade 3 success in the Sorrento Stakes last month. She was soundly beaten, finishing over 9-lengths back in 4th despite being on terms as they turned in and closed with a final quarter of 27.45s, fully 1.89s slower than Bottle of Rouge. Himika had finished ahead of Bottle of Rouge when they met on debut at Santa Anita in June, but on this evidence, Mike Smith’s mount appears to have improved past her and there is no obvious reason to think that form can be turned around in the future. Allowing for the fast time and the fact that Explora was having just her second outing on the track, having won a maiden on 17th August, then there are a lot of reasons for optimism about the first pair and how high they may climb. Explora was clearly thought to be the stables best hope given that she was sent off at very prohibitive odds and having been bumped at the start and pressed for the early lead, Juan Hernandez may well feel that he might have won this race with slightly more luck in the early stages, but the final 2-furlongs tell a different story and if there is a horse to take from this race, it should be the winner, Bottle of Rouge. 

With that point in mind, we should also pay a compliment to the 3rd placed La Wally from the Mark Glatt yard, who stayed on strongly in the closing stages to record the fastest run-out speed in the field at 33.24 mph. Running the rail around the turn, she was forced to switch wide into the home straight and although no match for the winner (0.15s slower than Bottle of Rouge over the final quarter of a mile), she did record the longest average stride length in the field at 25.49 ft and that data, coupled with her run-out speed, would offer some significant hope that she will benefit from a further step up in trip in the future. Her overall time of 1:34.34 would have been enough to win 5 of the last 10 renewals of this race.