Making her first start against winners, Family Meeting stormed home down the Del Mar turf stretch to win the $100,000 Jimmy Durante S. (G3) on Saturday afternoon.
Two-year-old Family Meeting is Sky Mesa’s fourth graded stakes winner of the year, and eighth black type winner overall.
Family Meeting gave her breeder/owner some anxious moments after tallying well back of the lead and still in eighth with a quarter mile to run. But jockey Drayden Van Dyke took her to the middle of the course, and the dark bay filly took off past the field for a rousing half-length win.
“She hasn’t quite figured it all out yet,” Van Dyke said. “She was idling on me, but I could feel I had a ton of horse under me, so I just wanted to keep her calm. When it came time, she went. She’s a good one; can’t wait to see what she does next.”
Family Meeting, who broke her maiden Nov. 7 over the Laurel Park turf, is trained by Tom Proctor. She is out of Family Plan, whose siblings include graded stakes winners Closeout and Capital Request.
