Saturday, November 29, 2019 (Berkeley, Calif.)- The well-bred Eclair made a final furlong rush from midfield to win the feature race on Friday afternoon at Golden Gate Fields, the $50,000 Golden Gate Debutante Stakes for 2-year-old fillies. Conditioned by Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert, Eclair picked up her first stakes victory with the ‘Debutante front-running finish.
Eclair broke smoothly from the gates and stalked the pace until upper stretch, where she angled outside, moved towards the lead and eventually collared runner up finisher No Cover Charge in a driving finish. Local contender Shanghai Keely finished third while recent maiden winner Mischievous Curlin rounded out the superfecta. Eclair completed the six furlongs on Tapeta in 1:10.30 seconds.
“My filly felt good jogging in the warm up,” said winning jockey Juan Hernandez. “My directions from the connections were to get her out of the gate and get a good position before I made my move. For a moment, I saw [No Cover Charge] slip away and I wasn’t sure if I would catch her. But my filly showed a nice kick down the stretch and we got up. It was a nice win.”
Eclair, a daughter of Bernardini out of the Dansili mare Elbe, was purchased for $420,000 by owners Sarah Kelly and Jane Wiltz earlier this year. With the Golden Gate Debutante victory in the books, Eclair improved her lifetime record to 2 wins from 6 starts, with 2 other in-the-money finishes.
Live racing resumes on Saturday afternoon with a first post time of 12:45 PM PT. Race 8 on Saturday is the marquee event of the fall meet, the Grade 3 $100,000 Berkeley Handicap, and drew a field of 11. Post time for the Berkeley is 4:18 PM PT.