Is Sensitively ready to win?

ARCADIA, Calif. – Constellation has nothing to prove in the Grade 3 Las Flores Stakes on Sunday at Santa Anita. Sensitively has everything to prove.

Constellation won the Grade 1 La Brea Stakes two months ago. Her current form is irrefutably sharp. Sensitively runs Sunday for the first time since August, when she finished last as the favorite in the Grade 3 Rancho Bernardo Handicap. Her form is questionable.

Perhaps Constellation stands out in the six-furlong Las Flores, seeking her third straight win for trainer Jerry Hollendorfer. But that presumption is possible only if one ignores the raw speed Sensitively has shown for trainer Phil D’Amato.

D’Amato and jockey Tyler Baze believe Sensitively can make amends.

“She’s training as good as ever,” D’Amato said. “Tyler breezed her the last couple times. He says she is training as good as she ever has.”

If they are right, Sensitively could be long gone in her first start back. When she is in peak form, Sensitively can go in splits of 21 and change and 43 and change and keep running. All four career wins were at Santa Anita. D’Amato will excuse her misfire last August.

“I don’t know if she doesn’t like Del Mar or what,” he said. “It was a weird track that day, a pick-six-carryover kind of track. She wasn’t comfortable and just hit a wall.”

Sensitively was turned out to freshen up for a 5-year-old campaign that begins Sunday in a small field. Five entered the Las Flores; five of the nine races Sunday have six starters or fewer.

Constellation was transferred to Hollendorfer late last summer with one objective – the La Brea on opening day of the winter meet.

“That was the goal race; everything was leading up to that race,” assistant trainer Dan Ward said.

Constellation, previously trained by Steve Asmussen, took a circuitous route to Grade 1 victory. Her prep was a $30,000 stakes at Turf Paradise. She won by more than five lengths and, six weeks later, scored the La Brea upset.

“That’s not usually the way you do it, but the spacing was good,” Ward said.

LAS FLORES, RACE 3 KEY CONTENDERS

Constellation, by Bellamy Road Last 3 Beyers: 95-83-73

◗ Flavien Prat rides Constellation, who breaks from the outside post and figures for a pressing trip in the clear.

◗ Constellation is based at Los

Alamitos; she shipped to Santa Anita last Sunday.

◗ Pending the Las Flores result, Constellation could target the Grade 1 Madison in April at Keeneland or the Grade 1 Humana Distaff in May at Churchill Downs.

Sensitively, by Street Sense Last 3 Beyers: 57-99-97

◗ She has won all three starts at Santa Anita in which she was returning from a layoff.

Pretty N Cool, by Scat Daddy Last 3 Beyers: 82-77-89

◗ A graded stakes winner at 2, her 3-year-old campaign in 2016 included only one minor stakes win. She is trained by Bob Baffert.