BY BROCK SHERIDAN

AUGUST 2, 2000—Florida-bred Debby d’Or withstood pressure throughout from several rivals before kicking clear in the stretch to win the first division of $110,750 Honorable Miss Handicap (Grade 3) at Saratoga Race Course. With 19 fillies and mares entering the six-furlong contest, the Honorable Miss was split into two divisions.

Jockey Shane Sellers had Debby d’Or into the race from the start as she was heads apart between Steal a Heart to her outside with Katz Me If You Can and Tropical Punch to her immediate right through a breakneck two furlongs in :21.83, leaving 118-pound highweight and 2-1 favorite Saorise four lengths back in a joint seventh. 

The four speedsters kept punching at each other around the turn and into the stretch before Debby d’Or got clear to win by length-and-a-quarter victory in 1:10.11. Tropical Punch finished second, a neck ahead of Katz Me If You Can in third with Saoirse three-and-a-quarter lengths back in fourth.

Despite coming from Monmouth Park off three straight wins and getting four pounds from Saoirse, Debby d’Or was let go at odds of 12-1, paying $26.80 to win.

Trained by Daniel Switzer for owner Albert Lobrillo, Debby d’Or started her streak with a length victory as the favorite in an upper-level allowance on May 29 then won the $45,000 Klassy Briefcase after coming from fifth in the five furlongs event on the grass. She then took the $45,000 John McSorley for the second consecutive year on July 16, even after the race was taken off the turf and run at five furlongs on a fast main track.

The Honorable Miss would the last victory of her accomplished career as in her next two and final starts, she finished out of the money in the Grade 1 Ballerina won by Dream Supreme at Saratoga in August and second to Superduper Miss in the $100,600 Endine at Delaware Park in September.

She retired with earnings of $323,938 from 10 wins in 22 starts with three secons and two thirds. By Tour d’Or out of Nasema, by Encino, Debby d’Or was bred in Florida by Luann Baker. 

Lobrillo put her through the 2001 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale but bought her back for $250,000. He bred her to El Corredor in 2002 and again put her through the same auction at Keeneland in November of that year, only to again buy her back for $190,000. She produced five foals with the Mr. Corredor colt, Mr. Noname, her only winner.