ARCADIA, Calif. – January is too early in the year for the elite of the female dirt division, but it’s just right for the lower tier to chase black type in a Grade 3 stakes on Saturday at Santa Anita.
The $100,000 La Canada offers an ideal chance for likely pacesetter Brilliantly to stretch out and score her second victory. If a mile and a sixteenth is too far, stablemate Nafisa can pounce. And if she also misfires, perhaps late-runner Ooty will upset. Bob Baffert trains all three.
“We don’t have that many chances to get black type anymore,” Baffert said. “We gotta go for it.”
Baffert’s trio makes up half of the six-runner field, and though the significance of an early season Grade 3 is debatable, many recent La Canada winners have gained subsequent acclaim. Previously restricted to 4-year-old fillies, the race was opened to older fillies and mares in 2016.
Since then, four of the 10 La Canada winners have later won Grade 1 races – Taris, Vale Dori, As Time Goes By, and Cavalieri. The 2018 La Canada winner never won again, but Mopotism achieved notoriety as the dam of Journalism, winner of the Santa Anita Derby, Preakness, and Haskell.
:: Santa Anita Classic Meet! Get DRF Past Performances, Clocker Reports, and more.
Beyond the Baffert runners, the La Canada field includes listed stakes winner So There She Was, Arizona-based allowance filly Fugitive Star, and locally based Jane Austen.
Brilliantly is the 7-5 program favorite while stretching out and adding blinkers following a fourth-place finish in the seven-furlong, Grade 1 La Brea Stakes. With two sprints under her belt, the Uncle Mo filly is ready to run long and is expected to set the pace.
“She’s definitely two turns,” Baffert said. “The other day, when she ran seven-eighths, [Flavien] Prat told me she’s sort of one-paced. She needs long.”
Brilliantly has won 1 of 4 starts and will be ridden by Juan Hernandez.
Her closest pursuer is likely to be Nafisa, who wheels back 15 days after a career-best victory in a first-level allowance route. Baffert believes the short turnaround is less challenging for a horse with a foundation of races. Nafisa has started 15 times.
“She’s had a lot of races. Horses that have had a lot of races, it’s easier,” Baffert said. “She’s a big, beautiful mare. She’s looks good. She’s fit and healthy.”
Kazushi Kimura rides Nafisa, who is likely to be positioned outside Brilliantly. Nafisa probably will get first run.
As for Ooty, she finished well in her third-place sprint comeback 13 days ago. It was her first start in four months.
“She needed that race. She’ll come running,” Baffert said.
Tiago Pereira rides Ooty, a Group 1 winner in Argentina who is seeking her first U.S. victory.
Doug O’Neill trains So There She Was, the 9-5 second choice who will be stretching out to her preferred route distance after finishing sixth in the La Brea. Her fourth-place finish two starts back in the Grade 2 Mother Goose at Aqueduct, as well as her win in the Remington Park Oaks three starts back, give her an upset chance. Emisael Jaramillo rides.
Favorites have won five of 10 La Canadas since the race was opened to older fillies and mares.
:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.