Made the heavy favorite following her dominating debut maiden victory July 19 at Del Mar, Pretty N Cool turned in another sparkling performance Wednesday to take the $200,000 Sorrento S. (G2).
This is a record seventh time Bob Baffert has won the race for 2-year-old fillies, and third carrying the Mike Pegram silks, who co-owns Pretty N Cool with Karl Watson and Paul Weitman. The trio bought the filly for $160,000 at the 2014 Keeneland September Yearling sale.
Breaking alertly from the outside in the field of six, Pretty N Cool was about four lengths off of Undisputed, who was very headstrong down the backstretch. Pretty N Cool began to reel in the pacesetter on the turn, easily rolling by to strike the front with two furlongs to go. On cruise control down the stretch, Pretty N Cool won by about three lengths in 1:16.94 for the 6 ½ furlongs on the fast main track.
“This filly has always shown she’s pretty special,” Baffert said on TVG after the win. “I love the way she sat off the leader, then Martin (Garcia) asked her to go; he rode with a lot of confidence. Hopefully this set her up well for the (Del Mar) Debutante (G1, on Sept. 5).”
Baffert’s winners of the Sorrento include Silverbulletday (1998) and Chilukki (1999), both of whom would go on to be named champion 2-year-old filly for their respective campaigns.