ARCADIA, Calif. – The first dirt stakes of the season for California 3-year-old fillies always begins in predictable fashion, which bodes well for odds-on Explora in the $100,000 Santa Ynez Stakes on Saturday at Santa Anita.
If she runs as expected in her first start since finishing second in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, Explora is likely to extend the streak of favorites in the seven-furlong Santa Ynez. Favorites have won seven in a row, six at odds-on. Explora, the class of the field with the highest figures, fits right in.
Bob Baffert trains three of the five Santa Ynez entrants – Grade 2 winner Explora, Grade 3 winner Himika, and debut winner Toaster. La Wally, a Grade 1-placed filly trained by Mark Glatt, also entered, along with Revera, a stakes winner trained by John Sadler. While the Santa Ynez, a sprint, goes through Baffert, the filly series will get tougher around two turns.
Super Corredora, the Sadler-trained winner of the BC Juvenile Fillies, is targeting a Feb. 1 comeback in the one-mile Grade 3 Las Virgenes; Bottle of Rouge, Baffert-trained winner of the Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante, is back working well. Upcoming options include the Las Virgenes, Grade 3 Santa Ysabel on March 1; and Grade 2 Santa Anita Oaks on April 4.
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Explora was favored in all four starts and ran well each time – a maiden win, the Del Mar Debutante runner-up, the Grade 2 Oak Leaf winner, and the Breeders’ Cup runner-up. She had time for one more, and Baffert entered her in the Grade 2 Golden Rod Stakes on Nov. 29 at Churchill Downs.
“She was going to go and she tied up a little bit the day before I [planned to] ship her,” Baffert said. “She got a little tight, so that’s why I didn’t ship her.”
Explora scratched from the Golden Rod, then quickly came around.
“She’s been working well,” Baffert said midweek. “Hopefully, she doesn’t tie up between now and” the Santa Ynez.
Juan Hernandez rides Explora, a Blame filly owned by Mike Pegram, Karl Watson, and Paul Weitman.
Baffert also entered 3-for-6 Himika, who won the Grade 3 Sorrento at Del Mar and Anoakia at Santa Anita. Himika finished second last out in the seven-furlong Desi Arnaz Stakes, won by Revera. Kazushi Kimura rides Himika.
“She needs the lead, she has to be on the lead,” Baffert said. “She needs to be out there doing her thing.”
Himika was compromised by post last out. She drew inside Revera, was under pressure from the outside, and finished second at 1-5.
Himika will focus this year on sprints, while Toaster wants to route although she won a sprint first out at Los Alamitos.
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“She wants to go two turns, but I need to get some experience in her,” Baffert said. “I’m trying to get them to the Kentucky Oaks.”
Mike Smith rides Toaster.
Revera upset Himika in the Desi Arnaz, but Saturday in the Santa Ynez, Sadler-trained Revera is stuck on the rail.
“Not ideal, it was my last choice of posts obviously, but we’re just going to have to deal with it,” Sadler said. “The positive is she is very honest, she tries.”
Revera, one-two in all four starts, will be ridden by Hector Berrios.
La Wally, third in the Del Mar Debutante and second in the Oak Leaf, will make her first start since she pressed and faded to eighth in the BC Juvenile Fillies.
“She had the nine-post, we kind of maybe put her up into the race a little too much,” Glatt said. “That being said, I’d like to have seen her hang in there a little better than she did.”
Umberto Rispoli is La Wally’s new rider.
The seven-furlong Santa Ynez leads to the one-mile Las Virgenes, where Super Corredora is lying in wait for her first of two preps leading to the Kentucky Oaks.
“She’s right on schedule for the Las Virgenes,” Sadler said. “That gives her about 60 days to the [Santa Anita] Oaks, then on to May.”
The Kentucky Oaks is May 1.
Bottle of Rouge, the Baffert filly who went off form after winning the Del Mar Debutante, is doing well following her sixth in the BC Juvenile Fillies.
“She went backwards on me a little bit,” Baffert said. “When she got on this track [Santa Anita in fall], she was struggling. She’s doing really well now, she’s coming back. You can draw a line through the” Breeders’ Cup.
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