Beach Bomb returned from a 119-day layoff to win the Grade 3 The Very One Stakes here March 1 in gate-to-wire fashion. The South African-bred mare will likely try similar tactics when she heads a field of seven entered to run 1 1/2 miles in the Grade 3, $165,000 Orchid Stakes.
“I thought she did it really nicely,” trainer Graham Motion said of Beach Bomb’s The Very One victory. “I wasn’t overly surprised because she’d been keeping solid company last year. She’s done well since.”
Beach Bomb raced three times in the United States last year, running well in the Violet and Rodeo Drive before finishing eighth, beaten 3 1/2 lengths, in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Del Mar.
Motion said the four-month break following the Breeders’ Cup really helped Beach Bomb “collect herself a little bit.”
Motion is interested in whether Beach Bomb can handle the 1 1/2 miles, an eighth of a mile farther than the The Very One.
“She should handle it. This is the logical step timing-wise,” Motion said.
Christophe Clement sends out the pair of La Mehana and Sacaya, the latter being a European import who has not raced since last fall.
La Mehana won the Via Borghese here in December before getting beat a neck in the La Prevoyante and then 1 1/2 lengths in the The Very One. Irad Ortiz Jr. rides La Mehana, as Dylan Davis has elected to ride Silvology, a filly he’s won on twice for trainer Shug McGaughey this meet.
Clement said he likes the 1 1/2 miles of the Orchid for La Mehana.
“The further the better for her, she stays,” he said.
Sacaya, according to Miguel Clement, assistant to his father, “has good tactical speed” and could be a forward factor under Joel Rosario.
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