Five G, a two-time stakes winner at Gulfstream Park earlier this year, is scheduled to be loaded on a van on Saturday morning for a journey of approximately 2,600 miles from Palm Beach Downs in Florida to Santa Anita in Arcadia, Calif.
The purpose of the trip is a start in the Grade 1 La Brea Stakes, a $300,000 race for 3-year-old fillies at seven furlongs on Dec. 26, opening day of Santa Anita’s winter-spring meeting.
Considering her race record, the lengthy van ride and a layoff since late March may not keep Five G from having an important role in the race.
Trainer George Weaver said on Friday that the La Brea has appeal for several reasons.
“It’s a Grade 1 at seven-eighths,” he said. “It’s one of the last 3-year-old filly opportunities.”
A van trip is the only option to get Five G to the West Coast. There are no flights currently available for equine transport.
In late November, the shipping company Federal Express announced it was pausing equine transport via air until early January. The company made a similar decision last year in early December.
“It’s inconvenient, but she’ll do fine,” Weaver said.
Five G, owned and bred by Gatsas Stable, has not raced since a win in the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Oaks at 1 1/16 miles on March 29. She was scratched from the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs on May 2 a day before the race after Weaver said at the time he was unsatisfied with the way she was training and a lack of appetite.
“She needed some time,” Weaver said on Friday.
Five G resumed workouts at Saratoga in early October. Irad Ortiz, Jr. is booked to ride Five G in the La Brea, Weaver said.
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