By Bloodhorse.com
DEL MAR, Calif. (Aug. 16, 2020) – After securing the first graded stakes win of her career in her previous race, KMN Racing’s California-bred Sneaking Out will try for a second straight such win when the consistent daughter of Indian Evening faces an expected seven other fillies and mares in the $100,000 Rancho Bernardo Handicap (G3) Aug. 21 at Del Mar.
Trained by Racing Hall of Famer Jerry Hollendorfer, Sneaking Out posted a three-quarter length victory in the $201,000 Great Lady M. Stakes (G2) July 4 at Los Alamitos Race Course after tracking from second early in that 6 1/2-furlong sprint. Sneaking Out, with Umberto Rispoli scheduled to be aboard for the first time, will try that distance again Friday.
The victory in the Great Lady M. improved Sneaking Out’s record to 5-4-0 from 11 starts. The 4-year-old California-bred filly out of the Kitten’s Joy mare Maddie’s Odyssey won last year’s Evening Jewel Stakes over other state-bred females in April at Santa Anita Park. She’ll be making her fifth start at Del Mar after securing a victory and two runner-up finishes in her previous tries at the seaside track.
The third-place runner from the Great Lady M., Amuse, also will try the Rancho Bernardo. Trained by Richard Mandella, Amuse finished off the board in a July 24 turf sprint at Del Mar and will return to the dirt, where she has won two of five starts and only finished off the board once.
Sneaking Out is by Indian Evening, out of the Kitten’s Joy mare Maddie’s Odyssey, she has five wins in 11 starts and earnings of $431,441.
Sneaking Out is the highweight at 123 pounds Friday, when she’s expected to face three other runners entered off wins in Gingham, Into Chocolate, and Mother of Dragons that each have been assigned 119 pounds. They’ll start from the field’s three inside positions.
Gingham will make her first start since winning the Angels Flight Stakes June 13 at Santa Anita Park—her first stakes score after finishing second earlier this year in the Las Virgenes Stakes (G2) there. Mike Smith was aboard for the most recent effort and returns Friday on the 3-year-old Quality Road filly.
After a pair of starts in the East, Pam and Marty Wygod homebred Into Chocolate returns to Southern California. The grade 3-placed daughter of Into Mischief won an allowance-level race July 12 at Belmont Park going six furlongs.
Mother of Dragons, who is owned and trained by Andreas Psarras, ventures to Del Mar after registering a narrow victory in the California Governor’s Handicap July 18 at Pleasanton.