Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Iliad may wait for Preakness
ARCADIA, Calif. – Iliad, fifth as the 3-1 favorite in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby last Saturday, will be considered for the Grade 1 Preakness Stakes at Pimlico on May 20.
Trainer Doug O’Neill said on Wednesday that he does not think Iliad will have sufficient qualifying points to gain one of the 20 berths in the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs on May 6. As of last weekend’s leading prep races, Iliad had 20 qualifying points and ranked 24th among candidates.
O’Neill, who won the 2016 Kentucky Derby with Nyquist, will be watching developments closely in the coming weeks and is hopeful to gain a Kentucky Derby spot for Iliad.
“We don’t have enough points,” O’Neill said. “If it opens up, I would endorse it.”
O’Neill won the 2012 Preakness with I’ll Have Another, who also won the Kentucky Derby.
In the Santa Anita Derby, Iliad was beaten two lengths by Gormley after a wide run on the turn.
Iliad races for Kaleem Shah. By Ghostzapper, Iliad has won 2 of 5 starts and earned $247,345. He won the Grade 2 San Vicente Stakes at seven furlongs on Feb. 12 and was second to Mastery in the Grade 2 San Felipe Stakes at 1 1/16 miles on March 11.
O’Neill plans to start the Grade 1 stakes winner Denman’s Call in the Grade 2 Churchill Downs Stakes at seven furlongs on May 6 and skip Saturday’s Grade 3 Los Angeles Stakes at six furlongs at Santa Anita.
The Churchill Downs is worth $500,000, while the Los Angeles is worth $100,000. Denman’s Call won the Grade 1 Triple Bend Stakes at seven furlongs at Santa Anita on March 11.
The Los Angeles is the lone graded stakes this weekend at Santa Anita. Sunday’s main race is the $75,000 San Pedro Stakes for 3-year-olds at 6 1/2 furlongs.
Candidates for the Los Angeles include Eastwood, Grazen Sky, Kentuckian, and Lord Simba in what is expected to be a small field.
Masochistic, second to Denman’s Call in the Triple Bend, is another candidate for the Churchill Downs Stakes.
Stablemates audition for stakes
Stablemates Lady Tapit and She’s a Warrior meet for the first time in a second-level optional $62,500 claimer at a mile for fillies and mares on Friday.
Both runners are owned by Lee and Susan Searing and have just one lifetime win, so they are racing above their eligibility in this spot and need positive races to show trainer Peter Eurton that they belong in upcoming stakes.
The optional claimer is the fourth of eight races on the first day of the Santa Anita springsummer meeting, which runs through July 4.
Lady Tapit was fourth in both the Grade 2 Santa Maria Stakes on Feb. 11 and the Grade 1 Santa Margarita Stakes on March 18, losing both races to Vale Dori. Eurton said he has been encouraged by Lady Tapit’s recent training, including two workouts on the infield training track since the Santa Margarita.
She’s a Warrior has not raced since finishing eighth in an optional claimer on turf last October that Eurton describes as a failed experiment.
“We wanted to see if that was something she wanted to do, and it obviously wasn’t,” he said. “We turned her out for no other reason than to let her grow.
“I think she’s grown up a bit. We’ll see if she’s better.”
Last year, She’s a Warrior was third in three graded stakes, including the Grade 1 Santa Anita Oaks and Grade 2 Las Virgenes Stakes to the year’s champion 3-year-old filly, Songbird.
The optional claimer drew five fillies and mares. Enduring Erin, fifth in the Grade 2 La Canada Stakes in January, is entered to be claimed for $62,500. Lunar Empress starts for the first time since finishing third in a similar race at six furlongs in February.
Faithfully, who has won two of her last three starts, returns to racing for the first time since last June. Trained by Bob Baffert, Faithfully won an allowance race at 1 1/16 miles at Churchill Downs last June and was turned out last summer.
“She was doing really well, and she came up with a minor injury, so I gave her time,” Baffert said. “She didn’t need surgery.”
Faithfully was purchased for $700,000 as a yearling and races for Hill ‘n’ Dale Equine Holdings and Bruce Lunsford.