ARCADIA, Calif. – If it’s a turf race at Santa Anita, trainer Phil D’Amato probably is involved. In any race at any track, jockey Umberto Rispoli probably is saving ground.
D’Amato and Rispoli team up in the featured fifth race Friday at Santa Anita with lightly raced Favor to You, a turf filly Rispoli rode to a rail-skimming maiden win last out at the same six-furlong distance she runs Friday. Can she make it two in a row? That is the question.
What’s not a question is Rispoli’s customary rail-skimming style. An inside trip is the shortest way around, whether on Preakness winner Journalism at Pimlico or maiden winner Favor to You at Santa Anita. D’Amato, who’s started more turf horses (46) and won more races (12) at this Santa Anita meet than any trainer, knows what he will get with Rispoli.
“He rides those ground-saving rides, whether it’s the dirt or the turf,” D’Amato said. “If you find room, it’s going to pay off.”
The difference between “finding room” and “making room” is a matter of interpretation. Rispoli made room last weekend with Journalism at Pimlico. He found room last month at Sanita Anita, where Favor to You shot through a narrow opening on the rail to win a maiden turf sprint by a nose. Favor to You could make it two in a row Friday in the entry-level allowance for 3-year-old fillies.
Six are entered in the allowance, including two-time winner Prime and Ready, comeback front-runner Proud Starlet, shippers Someday Lady and Little Mo, and route-to-sprint Preem. Favor to You is the tepid choice doing what she does best, which is sprint.
Favor to You’s career is just getting started. She finished second in her turf sprint debut in February, then tried a mile. The filly got keen, sputtered, and split the field. Two turns was not her preference, so D’Amato shortened her up.
“I liked her a lot better around one turn,” he said. “We took the blinkers off, and I think that helped her to relax and finish.”
It also helped that Favor to You rallied inside without getting stopped. Her main rival Friday is Prime and Ready, a two-time turf sprint winner this season exiting a close fourth against older starter-allowance rivals. Richard Baltas trains Prime and Ready, Tiago Pereira rides.
The allowance could be a prelude to a D’Amato-Baltas duel later this season with graded stakes-winning female sprinters: One Magic Philly, trained by D’Amato, and Sweet Azteca, now trained by Baltas.
One Magic Philly finished a respectable third last weekend in a comeback at Pimlico and will target the Grade 2 Great Lady M. on July 5 at Los Alamitos. Sweet Azteca is training super for her first start of the season and first for Baltas. She is nominated to the $100,000 Desert Stormer Stakes on June 1 at Santa Anita.
Friday begins a four-day week at Santa Anita that includes five Cal-bred stakes races Saturday, the Grade 2 Santa Margarita for fillies and mares on Sunday, and a stakes triple-header Monday, with the Grade 1 Gamely and Shoemaker on turf, and Grade 2 Hollywood Gold Cup on dirt.
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