Misstrial settled for third this afternoon at Del Mar. She broke much better this time and had a head in front early, but was content to take back slightly and press the pace from third while out in the clear through a solid :22.01 opening quarter. She ranged up to reestablish her advantage leaving the turn and into a :45.63 half, and was clear passing the quarter pole. One of the fillies who had been sitting off the pace quickly passed Misstrial in upper stretch, however, and the filly who was miles out of it early ran on to grab second.

Rider JJ Hernandez noted that Misstrial got very hot and amped up in the post parade—she expended a lot of energy before the race and then failed to ever relax once the gates opened. It is also worth noting that the two fillies who were up on the pace early with Misstrial completely stopped, so it’s fair to say the race collapsed. With that being said, we still admittedly expected a bit more from Misstrial.

We’ll see how she bounces out of this effort and look to build on it moving forward.

Misstrial got a nice pedigree update Saturday when her previously mentioned 3-year-old half-brother Banks scored a convincing victory in Turfway’s $240K Rushaway S. That adds a nice up-close and current stakes horse to Misstrial’s pedigree page and ups her breeding value somewhat. It’ll be interesting to see where they head with Banks from here–he’s only raced on conventional dirt once, but will likely need to return to the dirt or try turf next out and for the rest of the year.