English-bred Belvoir Bay, piloted by the red-hot Norberto Arroyo, Jr., grabbed the lead from the gate and never relinquished it in scoring a wire-to-wire triumph in the featured Grade III $100,000 Torrey Pines Stakes for three-year-old fillies Sunday.

 

Belvoir Bay, withdrawn from Friday’s Shared Belief Stakes versus males to run in the Torrey Pines, shook off the challenge of the 3-5 favored Bellamentary entering the stretch and continued on gamely to the wire to score by a length and one-quarter. Bellamentary held second by two lengths over She’s a Warrior, with Nine Point Nine another five lengths back in fourth. Kay Kay completed the line-up in fifth and last.

 

Pre-race favorite Enola Gray was scratched Sunday morning because of a respiratory problem. Also withdrawn were Uptown Twirl and Dreamarcher.

 

Belvoir Bay, a daughter of Equiano owned by Team Valor International and Gary Barber and trained by Peter Miller, accomplished the mile on the main track in 1:36.56 to earn first prize of $60,000 with her fourth win in nine career outings. The Torrey Pines marked the filly’s initial race over a dirt surface after competing exclusively on grass previously. She won the Blue Norther Stakes at Santa Anita last December on turf.

 

Sent postward at 7-1, Belvoir Bay paid $17.60, $4.80 and $3.20 and gave Del Mar newcomer Arroyo his sixth win in the last three racing days. He also won three races last Friday. Bellamentary, deputizing for her ailing stablemate, Enola Gray, returned $2.60 and $2.10, while She’s a Warrior paid $2.40 to show.

 

Arroyo’s earlier winners Sunday were Salsita at $6.80 in the third and Vai at $18 in the seventh.

 

NORBERTO ARROYO, JR. (Belvoir Bay, winner) – “First, I want to thank God, always. We were going to lay back a little bit, but she broke so well that I just let her go on with it. I worked her twice recently and the last time she was really impressive. She ran to that work today. I know Peter (trainer Miller) was thinking about scratching her today. But he didn’t, thank goodness. He made the right decision and it worked out great.”

 

MARTIN GARCIA (Bellamentary, second) – “She ran OK. When I asked her she gave me some, but not enough.”

 

MARIO GUTIERREZ (She’s a Warrior, third) – “Good race for her. We got stopped one time, though, and that affected her. She goes at one pace and if she gets stopped, it’s hard to get her back going again.”

PETER MILLER  (Belvoir Bay, winner) -- “I was going to scratch her this morning. I thought Enola Gray was unbeatable. I called the racing office and Chris (Stakes Coordinator Chris Merz) said, ‘You know we’ve got three scratches’ and I said, ‘What three?’ And when he said Enola Gray, that was enough. Her (Belvoir Bay) last race was a complete throw out. I felt good that she would run well today, but I didn’t know she’d run this well. She kind of caught a flier leaving the gate and the other speed (Nine Point Nine) got left. It couldn’t have worked out better, especially to win with Norberto (Arroyo Jr.) I’ve been a big supporter since he’s come back.” 

 

 

FRACTIONS:  :23.63  :47.03  1:11.13  1:23.54  1:36.56

 

The stakes win was the first at the meet for rider (Arroyo, Jr.) and his first in the Torrey Pines. He now has three stakes wins at Del Mar and this was his first graded stakes win.

 

The stakes win was the second of the meet for trainer Miller, but his first in the Torrey Pines. He now has 15 stakes wins at Del Mar.

 

(Miller had entered the filly to run against colts this past Friday in the Shared Belief Stakes, but chose to come out of that race to run in this one.)