DEL MAR : Flawlessly Will Run in the Ramona

Trainer Charlie Whittingham decided Friday to run Flawlessly, his 5-year-old Eclipse Award winner, against the fillies and mares in today’s $300,000 Ramona Handicap rather than against males in Sunday’s Eddie Read Handicap.

“I’m going to run the filly race,” Whittingham said. “After thinking it over, she’s got a little more weight, but I’ve beaten fillies, and this race works out better for her training program. And if I get beat by colts, I’d look like an idiot.”

Assigned the top weight of 125 pounds including Chris McCarron, Flawlessly will have the No. 2 post position for the 1 1/8-mile race.

Flawlessly, the top female turf runner last year, will get her toughest test from Jolypha, who drew the No. 4 post position. Jolypha, to be ridden by Kent Desormeaux, finished third against males in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Classic.

Flawlessly is the morning-line favorite at 6-5, followed by Jolypha at 9-5 and Re Toss, in the No. 6 post position with Eddie Delahoussaye, at 5-1. Other entrants are Let’s Elope (8-1, Patrick Valenzuela, No. 7); Heart of Joy (10-1, David Flores, No. 1); Border Mate (30-1, Corey Nakatani, No. 3); Pleasant Baby (30-1, Gary Stevens, No. 5), and Kalita Melody (30-1, Corey Black, No. 8)

Let’s Elope is a 6-year-old Australian mare who has won 11 of 21 races and almost $2.4 million. Her most notable victory was in the two-mile Melbourne Cup in November of 1991, when she came from 16 lengths back to win.

But come-from-behind runners might have a problem in the Ramona because there does not seem to be a pacesetter in the field.

“There is no (front-runner),” Desormeaux said. “I see Jolypha and Flawlessly hanging close to one another and Let’s Elope around the corner. This isn’t any match race between Flawlessly and Jolypha. If we get ignorant of Let’s Elope, she can steal it. I’m as concerned about her as I am about Flawlessly. . . . This is the race of the meet as far as I’m concerned.”

If no one forces the pace, McCarron might have to take things into his own hands with Flawlessly. Jolypha and Re Toss have both shown a preference for coming from five or six lengths off the pace, but they would have to stay closer if Flawlessly leads through moderate fractions.

In her only U.S. start, Let’s Elope won an allowance race at Hollywood Park on July 1. Her tactics were different than in Melbourne. She was never worse than third and never more than 2 1/2 lengths back.

“That turf course up there is like I-10,” Desormeaux said, “and she wasn’t running a distance she liked, but she got up and won.”

Horse Racing Notes

In addition to Let’s Elope, born in New Zealand but previously raced in Australia, the field for the Ramona Handicap will include Jolypha from France, Border Mate from Ireland, Re Toss from Argentina and Kalita Melody from Great Britain. . . . Scott McClellan, Chris McCarron’s agent, believes that trainer Charlie Whittingham would have kept Flawlessly nominated for the Eddie Read if the dates for the races had been flip-flopped. “It would have enabled him to keep his options open if two or three horses defected from the Eddie Read field,” McClellan said. Whittingham’s decision also allowed McCarron to catch a ride in the Eddie Read with L’Express, a 4-year-old coming back only eight days after finishing fourth in the San Diego Handicap.

Seven horses, headed by favored Kotashaan with Kent Desormeaux aboard, are entered in the Eddie Read. The sternest threats remaining are Leger Cat, ridden by Corey Nakatani, and The Tender Track, with Eddie Delahoussaye aboard. . . . Stark South, another Eddie Read entrant, has gone his last 10 races without consecutive starts on the same track. He will be ridden by a much-traveled jockey, Randy Romero.

Amal Hayati and Statuette won divisions of Saratoga’s Grade III Nijana Stakes for 3-year-old fillies on the turf Friday. Dr. Kiernan is the morning-line favorite for today’s feature at Saratoga, the $200,000-added, Grade I Sword Dancer Handicap.