ARCADIA, Calif. – The familiar names attempting to rejuvenate the female dirt division Saturday at Santa Anita include a high-profile Grade 1 winner who has not raced in nearly seven months and a Grade 3 winner who has not raced in seven days.
Seismic Beauty is the most accomplished entrant in the Grade 2 Santa Margarita Stakes, but she will be starting for the first time since she bombed as the favorite in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff. If she is as good as she was last summer, Seismic Beauty could win the Santa Margarita a second straight year. That assumes she carries her speed 1 1/8 miles in her first start back.
“She’s ready for it. She’s been training really well,” Bob Baffert said. “It’s a good start-out point. I’d like to have gone a mile and a sixteenth, but the timing’s good.”
Though listed 2-5 in the program, Seismic Beauty is no cinch. The Santa Margarita field includes Om N Joy, back in seven days and returning to dirt after a better-than-looked last-place finish in a Cal-bred stakes on turf; Lavender Love, a Cal-bred allowance winner with speed; Lemon Muffin, a late-running longshot; and the sharp Simply Joking, who is poised to upset.
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Five fillies and mares entered the $200,000 Santa Margarita, in which Seismic Beauty has a reputation to restore. After she wired the 2025 Santa Margarita, she earned a giant number wiring the Grade 1 Clement L. Hirsch at Del Mar. Unfortunately, the 110 Beyer Speed Figure took its toll.
“She sort of tailed off on me after that big race,” Baffert said.
He subsequently skipped the Grade 2 Zenyatta Stakes in fall at Santa Anita and trained Seismic Beauty into the BC Distaff. Favored at 6-5, she chased the pace and stopped. She finished 11th of 12.
“She just ran flat,” Baffert said.
Seismic Beauty then sold at auction for $2.5 million, and on Saturday will make her first start for new owners Randy and Jenny Boyd. Seismic Beauty’s post is not ideal. A front-runner, she drew post 3 inside fellow front-runners Simply Joking and Lavender Love.
“She’s got to break,” Baffert said about Seismic Beauty. “It depends on the pace. That’s the key. I just leave that up to J.J.,” referring to jockey Juan Hernandez.
Simply Joking is the “now” filly. Michael McCarthy trains Simply Joking, who was multiple graded stakes-placed prior to her most recent start. She crushed three rivals racing 1 1/16 miles in the Grade 3 Santa Maria and worked exceptionally well since.
“She’s had a couple of nice breezes. Looking forward to seeing what she can do going a mile and an eighth,” McCarthy said. “That would open up some doors. She’s trained very well. That’s why I’m kind of keen to give this a try.”
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Drawn in post 4 under Emisael Jaramillo, Simply Joking figures for an in-the-clear pace-pressing trip as the 3-1 second choice in the program. Simply Joking’s price is expected to be much lower, and if she reproduces her last-start romp, she could upset the favorite.
Lavender Love is now 2 for 2 in dirt routes after dominating an entry-level allowance 15 days ago.
“Running back quick, it’s not the ideal spot,” trainer Richard Baltas acknowledged. “It’s not the ideal spot, but what is here in California? I put her in [the Santa Margarita] because the distance is perfect. That being said, I think she needs the lead. She’s got a high cruising speed.”
Armando Ayuso is named on Lavender Love. Early this week, Baltas said Lavender Love is not a confirmed starter.
The Santa Margarita wild card is Om N Joy, who reeled off four stakes wins last year, and was rounding into form this season as a 4-year-old until one week ago. She returned to turf last Saturday and finished last in the Fran’s Valentine Stakes for Cal-breds.
It was a strange performance by Om N Joy. She was keen early, dropped back, finished last, then took off again after the wire and galloped out super.
“The race overall was confusing,” trainer Aggie Ordonez said. “I’m just gonna draw a line through it. I’d love to just keep it simple and say she just didn’t handle the grass and write it off as that. I’m not convinced of it, because she looked comfortable.
“She came bouncing back to the barn, and she’s a big, strong, sound filly. It’s a perfect situation to wheel her right back and try her back on the dirt. I’m hoping they go out there and soften Seismic Beauty up a little bit. I’m not worried about the mile and an eighth, and I love the way it sets up.”
A pace meltdown would benefit Om N Joy, whose rider is Kent Desormeaux.
Ordonez rarely runs back on short rest, but she did it once. On Nov. 6, 1996, at Remington Park, training under her maiden name of Anderson, Ordonez wheeled back the claiming horse Woodeye in a main-track sprint four days after he finished last in a turf route. Woodeye rallied from seventh and won going away.
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