Del Mar Oaks

TRACK BANDIT PREVIEWS

PERFECT SHIRL (Perfect Soul [Ire]) lived up to her family's legacy with a 9-1

upset of the Lake George S. (G2) at Saratoga last month, and is our choice to

add Saturday's Del Mar Oaks (G1) to her scorecard. The Roger Attfield trainee

enters the 1 1/8-mile grass test with three straight wins to her credit and will

be reunited with Chantal Sutherland, who guided the filly to a maiden and

allowance scores at Woodbine earlier in the summer.

A half-sister to multiple Grade 1 winner Shakespeare and the Grade 2 heroine

Lady Shakespeare, both by Theatrical (Ire), Perfect Shirl has spent half her

racing career running on synthetics, but on turf is where she's made a name for

herself. A solid second in her grass debut in March, the bay later reacquainted

herself with the surface when taking the aforementioned maiden at Woodbine by 2

1/2 lengths, then wore down 11 rivals to take the Lake George by three parts of

a length two starts later. She earned a BRIS Late Pace rating of 102 when

rallying from midpack, the kind of kick that can prove successful against these.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with likely favorite EVENING JEWEL (Northern

Afleet) except her expected short price. She's gutted out wins in the Honeymoon

H. (G2) and San Clemente H. (G2) in her last two, and is easily among the best

California-based sophomore fillies regardless of surface. On paper, she doesn't

figure to have too much company on the front end, thus she might not have to

expend too much energy in the early stages. Having to stretch out here to nine

furlongs, perhaps her uppermost limit, that will be crucial. This gem of

consistency has finished first or second in 10 of 11 starts, and we expect that

trend to continue.

We thought about selecting HARMONIOUS (Dynaformer) for the top slot as she's

undefeated in three turf appearances including the American Oaks (G1) last out.

Instead, we'll take a stand against as she takes on a much tougher group this

time. With its reduced purse this year, the American Oaks came up rather soft,

which partially explains why a filly with just a maiden and allowance win to her

credit walked away with a score at the highest level. Perfect Shirl and Evening

Jewel are far better than any filly she faced at Hollywood, and her Late Pace

ratings of 86, 79 and 91 are a bit soft for high-end turf performers.

WEEKEND MAGIC (Ecton Park) was third in the American Oaks but validated that

form somewhat when finishing less than a length behind Evening Jewel in the San

Clemente. While we don't expect her to progress enough to upset this field, she's

shown in her two turf outings to be among the better fillies in her division in

the region. IT TIZ (Tiznow) landed the Le Cle S., an overnight event at

Hollywood, two back, but endured a horribly wide trip in the final quarter-mile

of the San Clemente. Four-wide entering the stretch, she was five-wide crossing

the finish in sixth, and was beaten less than two lengths. Three back, she

defeated Lilly Fa Pootz (Gilded Time) in an allowance, and that rival narrowly

missed last week in the John C. Mabee S. (G2). The formlines look strong on this

one.

CRISP (El Corredor), the Santa Anita Oaks (G1) winner, ran second in the Le

Cle and fourth in the San Clemente. In the latter, she clipped heels with a

rival around the clubhouse turn. She seemed to recover OK as she was already

near the back of the field at the time of the incident, and made up a moderate

amount of ground and position late. Our gut tells us she'd be more formidable in

a main-track event. ANTARES WORLD (Decarchy) was a near 13-1 chance when finishing

second in the American Oaks. The Golden Gate-based filly is one of the few who

could conceivably keep Evening Jewel from running away with this, but we don't

think the multiple stakes winner ultimately has the class to keep up with that.

We predict a form reversal against tougher field.

The European invaders, BERG BAHN (Ire) (Big Bad Bob) and DISTINCTIVE (GB) (Tobougg

[Ire]), are both Group 3 winners and ran one-four, respectively, in the Brownstown S. (Ire-G3)

at Fairyhouse when last seen June 30. We're not quite convinced they're classy

enough to beat the hometown folks off the plane. WARREN'S JITTERBUG

(Affirmative), who beat California-bred foes last time, looks to be the outsider

of this race. Though she owns a good mark on this course, she's shown a tendency

to settle for minor checks throughout her career.