By Bloodhorse.com
DEL MAR, Calif. (Nov. 30, 2016) – Desert Madam hasn’t earned her first stakes try by winning every race or running off the screen.
The daughter of Desert Code, bred in California by Oakcrest Stable, convinced trainer Bill Spawr to enter her in the $200,000 Bayakoa Handicap (gr. II) at Del Mar Dec. 3 for one reason.
“She tries every time,” Spawr said. “Every time.”
A $20,000 claim by Spawr in May for owners STD Racing Stable and Andy Miller, the 5-year-old mare has put in her best effort in each of her five ensuing starts. First it was a pair of July allowance victories—by 3 1/4 and 2 1/4 lengths. Then came an 8 1/4-length rout in another allowance at Del Mar in August.
Her last two starts haven’t been victories, but they displayed Desert Madam’s grit. She was a nose back of fellow Bayakoa entrant Autumn Flower in an Oct. 16 allowance and came in a neck behind Enduring Erin Nov. 11. In both she battled back on the inside to just miss.
The move from claimer to graded stakes is not an unfamiliar one for the 76-year-old horseman, who turned a $50,000 claim for Exchange into seven graded victories and three grade I wins in the 1990s.
“She brings it every time,” Spawr said of Desert Madam. “She’s consistent. When they’re consistent, you give them a shot. When they try like this every time, someday they’re going to beat the other ones who don’t try every time or need everything their own way.”
The key to Desert Madam’s success, according to Spawr, is working through her issues with muscle cramps. To combat the cramps, the trainer sends the mare out for a two-mile gallop the mornings of race days.
“Nobody believes me when I tell them that’s what we do, but that’s helped her develop,” Spawr said. “She gets warmed up going nice and easy.”
Desert Madam will have to play the underdog for the first time in a long time, however, as Vale Dori and Gloryzapper loom the favorites in the 1 1/16-mile Bayakoa. The pair met back in August, when Gloryzapper edged Vale Dori by a neck in a Del Mar allowance, and both have found success since.
Vale Dori, owned by Sheikh Mohammed bin Khalifa al Maktoum and trained by Bob Baffert, won the Tranquility Lake Stakes Aug. 31, ran third behind champions Stellar Wind and Beholder in the Zenyatta (gr.I), then dominated an allowance field at Santa Anita Park Oct. 28 to win by 10 1/4 lengths.
Gloryzapper, trained by Phil D’Amato, is the only graded winner in the field. Before her 11th-place run in the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint (gr. I), the Ghostzapper filly won the L.A. Woman Stakes (gr. III) by a half-length over fellow Bayakoa entrant Wild At Heart.
Barbara Beatrice is a Cal-bred by Grazen, out of the Decarchy mare Showtime Apollo, was bred by Phil D’Amato, is owned by D’Amato or Queen Bee Racing and is trained by D’Amato. She has four wins in 13 starts, earnings of $225,534 and is coming off a fourth in the Nov. 13 Betty Grable.