ARCADIA, Calif. – The one-week postponement of the Grade 3 Las Cienegas Stakes is no big deal for Laulne. She has been off eight months, and one more week is unlikely to make a difference.
The Las Cienegas, a Santa Anita hillside race for fillies and mares, was originally scheduled for Jan. 12. Racing was canceled due to the fires, however, and the Las Cienegas was pushed back a week. Nine re-entered the Las Cienegas, which is race 9 on Sunday. The Grade 3 La Canada Stakes is race 8. There will be a pick six carryover of $52,051, with the sequence starting in race 6.
The Las Cienegas field includes stakes winner Laulne, Grade 3 winner Nadette, three-time stakes winner Toupie, stakes winners Hamwood Flier and Miss Lizzy, and stakes-placed Just Nails.
Laulne is trained by Phil D’Amato, who has won the Las Cienegas three of the last four years. He expects Laulne to pick up where she left off in winning the Angel’s Flight for 3-year-old fillies on the hill last April. Laulne was sidelined after finishing third in the Grade 3 Senorita at Santa Anita in May, and expectations are high for her comeback.
“She’s set to run, she’s training really good, and she’s already a group stakes winner,” D’Amato said. “I think she’s fit. She’s already won on the hill for me once. She knows the hill.”
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Laulne will be ridden by Antonio Fresu, who rode her in the stakes victory last spring and has been aboard in her recent workouts. A Group 3 winner in France at age 2, Laulne has won 4 of 9 career races. The Las Cienegas is her first start against older company, and D’Amato believes Laulne matches up well.
“I don’t think there’s anyone [in the field] I think there’s no way I can beat,” he said.
Nadette drops in class from an eighth-place finish in the Grade 1 Matriarch. A late-runner, Nadette would benefit from a contested pace in the Las Cienegas.
“The reason we’re running in there is to have pace in front of her. There was no pace in the Matriarch, and she needs pace,” trainer Neil Drysdale said. “She ran in the [Las Cienegas] last year (fourth place), and she’s better this year.”
Nadette, a 6-year-old who won the Grade 3 Wilshire last spring at Santa Anita, has won 5 of 25 career races and will be ridden by Juan Hernandez.
“She’s going to have a break after this, and then she’ll come back in the summertime,” Drysdale said.
Toupie is a three-time stakes winner based in the East. Graham Motion trains the filly, who won the $100,000 Unzip Me Stakes last fall at Santa Anita. Flavien Prat rides Toupie, a 4-for-10 presser.
Just Nails, whose three hillside starts have produced a win and two seconds, finished fourth against males last out at Del Mar. Front-runner Hamwood Flier makes her first start in nearly a year, while late-runner Miss Lizzy returns from a three-month break.
Hamwood Flier, Toupie, Anywho, and Laulne all have speed to be forwardly placed, though none are need-the-lead types. Others in the field are Ma Rae’s Girl and Vitalera.
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