Vale Dori (ARG)

A Group 1 winner in Argentina who was group stakes-placed in Dubai, Vale Dori won the 2016 Tranquility Stakes at Del Mar in her second start in the U.S.

After finishing third in the Grade 1 Zenyatta Stakes, Vale Dori strung together a three-race winning streak that included a victory in the Grade 2 Bayakoa Handicap to close her 2016 season and a win in the Grade 2 La Canada Stakes to begin her 5-year-old campaign in 2017. She followed with a victory in the Grade 2 Santa Maria Stakes in February, and then picked up her first Grade 1 win in the Santa Margarita Stakes on March 16.

Vale Dori extended her unbeaten streak to six with a score in the Grade 3 Adoration Stakes in May. She then matched up against champion Stellar Wind in two consecutive Grade 1 stakes – the June 3 Beholder Mile and the July 30 Clement L. Hirsch Stakes – and finished second to that rival by a neck both times.

Vale Dori did not race again until May 2018, and made four starts over the summer without a win, finishing second once and third once in listed stakes races and going unplaced in two graded stakes. She then started in the Grade 1 Zenyatta Stakes on Sept. 30 at Santa Anita Park – and in that 1 1/16-mile event, she tracked the pace, took the lead in the stretch, and held off La Force by three quarters of a length while heavily favored stablemate Abel Tasman finished a nonthreatening fifth. Vale Dori earned an automatic berth in the Nov. 3 Longines Breeders’ Cup Distaff with the win.