DEL MAR : Filly Gives Affirmative Answer

Her connections aren’t thinking Breeders’ Cup, but there is a little less concern about Theresa’s Pleasure’s stamina now.

The 2-year-old Greenwood Star filly remained unbeaten, leading wire to wire in the $81,800 California Thoroughbred Breeders’ Assn. Stakes Monday.

Bred in California by her owner, Lester Smith, Theresa’s Pleasure had started her career with two victories at Los Alamitos during the Orange County Fair meeting. She beat $32,000 maidens by 7 1/2 lengths, then came back to win the Proudest Sister by three.

Both of those victories were at 4 1/2 furlongs, so it remained to be seen how she would do at six furlongs on a major track.

The 3-1 second choice broke well under Julio Garcia, quickly took the lead, opened it to 1 1/2 lengths after a 21 3/5 quarter mile, still had a length’s lead through a 44 4/5 half-mile and held 5-1 shot Perky Slew off in the final furlong, winning by a bit more than a length in 1:09 3/5.

“We knew she had a lot of speed, but we didn’t know if she had a lot of stick,” said Haitham Yakteen, the assistant to trainer Bob Baffert, who was attending the September yearling sale at Keeneland in Lexington, Ky.

“We knew she was training great, but we didn’t know if she could go six furlongs. We know she has stick now.”

Garcia, who inherited the mount in the Proudest Sister after Corey Nakatani suffered a broken hand in a jockey room fight, earned his fourth stakes victory of the season.

“The trainer told me to go to the front with her,” he said. “She broke OK and we did it. She felt good all the way. I thought I was a winner the whole way.”

This was the third straight time Perky Slew had to settle for second. She had placed in the Landaluce at 46-1 behind Garden Gal after finishing second to Sawsan in Golden Gate’s Joy to the World.

“She ran well,” Eddie Delahoussaye said. “I dropped my stick at the head of the stretch and that may have hurt her a bit. But, I don’t know if I was going to win it anyway. She got a little tired at the finish.

“She hadn’t run in a while. When you consider that, she ran well.”

Number’s Game, the 9-5 favorite, finished 3 1/2 lengths behind Perky Slew. It was her first start on Lasix.

“She got a little washy on me today,” Martin Pedroza said. “She tried, but she can run better than that.”

Spirited Susan was fourth, then came Dragonetta, Fly For Free and Ain’t Half Bad, Baffert’s other entrant, who was eased.

Pat Valenzuela long ago wrapped up the riding title here, but the trainers’ race will go down to the final day.

Bill Spawr and Wayne Lukas are tied with 14 victories apiece. Seeking his first title at any meeting, Spawr has three horses entered Wednesday--Manifest Destiny in the first, Re Run in the second and J.B. Water in the fifth.

Lukas, who has been the leader at Del Mar three times, most recently in 1988, will start Formal Dinner and Running Total in the Del Mar Futurity.

“I’d rather see Sensational Star (who won the Bing Crosby and Pat O’Brien Handicaps) get horse of the meet than to see me get leading trainer,” said Spawr, who has had 60 starters locally, 10 fewer than Lukas. “I keep getting it pushed in my face that I’m a claiming trainer. I claimed him, but he’s a stakes horse. He’s as hard-nosed and gutty as Rocky Marciano. He’s the people’s horse; he came up as an underdog.

“I’ve led meets in percentage, but never in number of winners. I’ve always had a high percentage, but I’ve started to get some more horses the last year or two and you start to see yourself in the standings. I don’t think I’m doing anything different.”