Rabeeba confirmed her status as Del Mar's breakout 3-year-old filly on Sunday, stretching her unbeaten record to three while taking the Grade 3 Torrey Pines Stakes by 2 1/4 lengths at a mile on dirt.
Owned by Michael Lund Petersen, trained by Bob Baffert and ridden by Juan Hernandez, the chestnut stopped the clock in 1:38.19 and returned $4.20 as the odds-on favorite in a seven-horse field.
Unlike her front-running wins in a 6 1/2-furlong Los Alamitos maiden and a one-mile Del Mar allowance, Rabeeba adopted a stalking trip in the Torrey Pines, settling just behind pace factors She's No Quant and Mohaven before making her move.
Reports from BloodHorse and Daily Racing Form note that she angled out in upper stretch, collared She's No Quant inside the sixteenth pole and drew away down the center of the track to win comfortably.
The Torrey Pines capped a swift ascent up the class ladder for Rabeeba, who debuted only June 19, wiring her Los Alamitos field, then came back July 26 to edge rivals in a mile allowance over the same Del Mar surface.
A daughter of Curlin out of Chatham, she brings a pedigree geared toward two-turn dirt racing, which makes her mile performances at this stage particularly encouraging.
In those first two starts she did her best work on or near the lead, but Sunday's come-from-behind score showed a more mature filly capable of relaxing early and quickening on demand, a progression Baffert and Hernandez both highlighted in their post-race comments.
The race itself carried a purse of $151,000, with $90,000 to the winner, and stands as the premier dirt event for 3-year-old fillies at Del Mar's summer meet, making it a logical stepping stone toward deeper graded company later in the year.
Thoroughbred Daily News and BloodHorse both framed the victory as a key breakout performance, emphasizing that Rabeeba had to overcome some in-race adversity before asserting her class in the final furlong.
From a betting standpoint, Rabeeba went to post around 11-10 as the clear choice over She's No Quant, Mohaven, Bank Shot, Wolf Hill, Kinzlee'scharisma and Channel Place, reflecting a strong public endorsement despite the filly's relative inexperience.
Handicappers who had watched her prior efforts were rewarded when she delivered on that confidence, and her ability to rate behind multiple speeds should now be factored into pace projections wherever she appears next.
The scheduling of her three starts—maiden in June, allowance in late July, stakes in late August—suggests a deliberate, incremental campaign, with Baffert allowing time between races while keeping her around a mile as the class level rose.
That pattern mirrors how he has developed other successful Del Mar fillies in recent seasons, and it positions Rabeeba to stretch out in distance or tackle stronger company without needing to change much in terms of preparation.
For handicappers, the most important takeaway is that Rabeeba has now proven she can win without securing an uncontested lead, sustain a strong finish at a mile and maintain her form across different pace scenarios at two Southern California tracks.
If she continues to progress and remains sound, she will enter upcoming West Coast 3-year-old filly routes as the horse others have to catch, particularly on the Del Mar dirt where she has already built a perfect record.