DEL MAR, Calif. – Grass stakes for older horses are the focus of the Bing Crosby autumn meet, but it was a 2-year-old filly racing on dirt who stole the show Saturday at Del Mar. A scintillating debut by Faiza upstaged the Kathryn Crosby Stakes victory by Bipartisanship and stamped Faiza as an instant star in the California 2-year-old filly division. It did not take her long, she smoked six furlongs in 1:09.28 and won the maiden race geared down by Flavien Prat. Bob Baffert trains Faiza, whose race-4 instructions to Prat were simple. “I told him I think she’s a really special filly, just ride her with confidence. Ride her like you’re on Flightline.” Faiza ($3.60) pressed the fast pace set by Teena Ella, took over passing the quarter pole after a half-mile in 44.76 seconds and won the maiden sprint by 3 1/2 lengths. :: DRF Bets members get FREE DRF Past Performances - Formulator or Classic. Join now! “Very professional,” Prat said. “She kicked home well and galloped out really well.” Baffert said Faiza has “been ready to do this for a month. That was nothing for her. She’s fit to go a mile. She ran pretty fast today, but hopefully we’re going to the Los Alamitos race next. We want that Grade 1.” The 1 1/16-mile Grade 1 Starlet is Dec. 10. Michael Lund Peterson owns Faiza, a Girvin filly he purchased at a 2-year-old sale for $725,000. Baffert said he tried to enter her several times, but the maiden races did not fill. It was a frustrating wait for Peterson and Baffert, but he and Peterson had been down this road before. “Gamine was the same thing, everybody knew about her, and” Faiza. Gamine won five Grade 1 races and was champion female sprinter in 2020. The maiden-race disappointment was Teena Ella, the War Front filly produced by Beholder who faded to sixth after dueling inside the eventual winner. Trainer Richard Mandella said Teena Ella “is carrying weight, a little like her mother was” in her debut. Teena Ella is likely to improve next out, but the equine star on Saturday was Faiza. In the race-7 feature, the $83,700 Kathryn Crosby for fillies and mares on turf, Graham Motion-trained Bipartisanship ($8.40) scored a one-length victory in the restricted turf mile. Her final time was 1:37.27. Assistant trainer Alice Clapham saddled Bipartisanship, whose ground-saving trip under Juan Hernandez was the difference between her Del Mar stakes win and her fifth-place comeback last month at Keeneland. “He saved all the ground,” Clapham said, referring to Hernandez. “At Keeneland, she was so wide. She’s got that nice little kick.” Bipartisanship, who won the $100,000 Tropical Park Oaks last year at Gulfstream Park, has won 3 of 12 starts. Gold for Kitten rallied to second in the Kathryn Crosby, Royal Address finished third, and favorite Burgoo Alley finished fifth. The stakes win by Hernandez was his second in two days. He won the Let It Ride Stakes on Friday with Handy Dandy. * Jockeys Kyle Frey and Ryan Curatolo each received three-day suspensions for riding infractions incurred Nov. 11. Frey rode Durante to victory in race 5. Durante drifted out in the stretch “causing interference,” according to the stewards ruling. Curatolo rode Spycatcher to a third-place finish in race 7, the Let It Ride Stakes. The jockey’s penalty also was for “failure to maintain a straight course in the stretch, causing interference.” The suspensions for Frey and Curatolo are Nov. 19-20, and 24. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.