Anisette impressive in Yellow Ribbon

Private purchase Anisette made it three straight Graded stakes wins on Saturday with an impressive score in the Grade 2 Yellow Ribbon Handicap at Del Mar.

Despite giving her rivals north of 6 pounds, Anisette made light of the weight, settling in a stalking position behind the leaders before powering through a gap between horses to win easily under regular pilot Umberto Rispoli.

Never out of the first two since joining current connections Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and trainer Leonard Powell, Anisette was winning her fifth Graded stakes race for just over $900,000 in earnings. The daughter of Awtaad was also a star at last year’s Del Mar meeting when sweeping the Grade 1 Del Mar Oaks and Grade 2 San Clemente Stakes. She came into this race off the back of a win in the Grade 1 Gamely Stakes at Santa Anita.

“I knew I was on the best filly; that makes a difference,” Rispoli said. “But I won today even easier than it looked. She was the best.”

Leonard Powell added: “They went the second quarter in :23 and they didn’t back up, but I felt she was in a good spot. When they made the turn, Umberto had to choose outside or inside, and remember, she had to give six, eight, 10 pounds to the field so weight did matter, but once she leveled off, she really went on and at the sixteenth pole I knew she would get there.”

Anisette was a private purchase out of Kevin Philippart de Foy’s yard in late 2022 in conjunction with Aron Wellman.

She was bred by the Morera Partnership, in whose colours she won at Wolverhampton, and is out of Tutti Frutti, a Teofilo half-sister to the Group 1 Nassau Stakes winner Soft Centre.