Sweet Azteca, the three-time stakes winner who missed her scheduled 2025 debut on Sunday at Santa Anita because of an apparent cut on a leg, resumed training on Wednesday and could race as early as next month.
“She’s back to the track,” trainer Richard Baltas said on Wednesday.
Baltas said he will consider starting Sweet Azteca in the Grade 2 Great Lady M. Stakes, a $200,000 race at 6 1/2 furlongs at Los Alamitos on July 5. The race is expected to draw such runners as Kopion, the nation’s leading female sprinter, and One Magic Philly, the winner of the Grade 3 Chillingworth Stakes at Santa Anita last October.
“We might run in the Great Lady M.,” Baltas said. “We’d have to run against the monsters.”
On Wednesday at Santa Anita, Kopion worked a half-mile in 46 seconds, the quickest of 18 works at the distance. Trained by Richard Mandella, Kopion won the Grade 1 Derby City Distaff at Churchill Downs on May 3 in her most recent start.
Sweet Azteca was the odds-on favorite on the morning line for Sunday’s Desert Stormer Stakes for fillies and mares at six furlongs, but she was withdrawn on race morning. Baltas said at the time that Sweet Azteca had sustained “a little nick” on a leg, which he ventured may have occurred during training in the days before the race.
“It was horrible” timing, Baltas said of the scratch. “It was the right thing to do. The filly is doing great.”
Sweet Azteca, who races for owner and breeder Pamela Ziebarth, has not raced since she finished fourth at 1-10 odds in the Chillingworth Stakes last October. She was trained at the time by Michael McCarthy and was transferred to Baltas in late 2024.
The Desert Stormer had only three runners and was won by Super Shine, a 5-year-old Argentine-bred mare. Trainer Phil D’Amato said on Wednesday that Super Shine may not run in the Great Lady M. D’Amato trains One Magic Philly.
Super Shine could be considered for the Grade 3 Rancho Bernardo Handicap, a $100,000 race at 6 1/2 furlongs for fillies and mares at Del Mar on Aug. 24. D’Amato said stakes around two turns away from California are another possibility.
Super Shine, a three-time stakes winner in Argentina, won for the first time in the United States in her fifth start in the country. She broke well, which had not been the case in previous starts.
“We have the Rancho Bernardo,” D’Amato said. “I’ll play it by ear and even look around in other spots. She made an improvement by breaking and running well.”
D’Amato said Super Shine is doubtful to start in the Grade 1 Clement Hirsch Stakes at 1 1/16 miles at Del Mar on Aug. 2, the track’s premier summer race for fillies and mares.
“There will be some nice horses in there,” he said. “I don’t mind shipping around.”
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