Weekend Racing at Del Mar : Several Are on the Ball for Debutante

A case can be made for several of the eight starters to win the $125,000 Del Mar Debutante Sunday at Del Mar Race Track.

Brave Raj, Footy and Saros Brig have already won stakes races here this season.

Road to Happiness and Picene are the only horses in the field of 2-year-old fillies to have won at a mile, which is the distance of the Debutante.

Soft Copy is a speedy filly who has won three of four starts, and her only loss was by a neck.

Here is the Debutante field, starting with the No. 1 post:

Brave Raj, Corey Black riding; Footy, Santiago Soto; Road to Happiness, Frank Olivares; Saros Brig, Bill Shoemaker; Soft Copy, Russell Baze; Always a Woman, Ray Sibille; Picene, Alex Solis, and Breech, Terry Lipham.

Brave Raj, who won the seven-furlong Sorrento Stakes at Del Mar Aug. 18, could give apprentice Corey Black his first stakes win. Black is riding because Pat Valenzuela, who rode Brave Raj to victory in the Sorrento, is at Arlington Park Sunday to ride Al Mamoon in the Budweiser-Arlington Million.

Del Mar’s Labor Day weekend begins today with the $50,000 Pat O’Brien Handicap. Top weight, with 121 pounds, is American Legion, who won the Bing Crosby Handicap in his last start.

In a change of plans, Vernon Castle will apparently run Monday in the $300,000 Del Mar Handicap. Vernon Castle already has won the La Jolla Mile Handicap and the Del Mar Derby at the meeting.