Eoff targets stakes double

Terry Eoff will attempt to pull a significant double at his hometrack of Retama Park on Saturday night when he sends out Southern California stakes winner Terra’s Angel in the $75,000 La Senorita and blowout maiden winner Analyze This Jet in the $75,000 El Joven.

The La Senorita and El Joven feature 2-year-olds at a mile on turf and serve as the signature races for Retama.

Eoff, a trainer who co-owns the horses with Johnny Evans, has won the La Senorita before, in 2013 with Sky’s Goldmaker. He’s back with a chief contender in Terra’s Angel. She faces eight others, including Secret Passion, winner of the $65,000 Prairie Meadows Gold Lassie, and Aubrey, second against male rivals last out in an optional $50,000 claiming race at Retama.

Terra’s Angel won her debut in May at Lone Star Park, just a few weeks before Eoff’s daughter, Terra, died at 36 following a battle with cancer. The win so early on in her 2-year-old season made for few regional racing options for Terra’s Angel, which led Eoff to look at the Grade 2 Sorrento at Del Mar.

“We had nowhere to go with her,” Eoff said. “She was just so full of herself. I was working her against the boys. Everything we had she just outworked. I just thought, ‘Let’s take a shot out there and see what happens.’ ”

But the logistics were not so simple.

“I was looking at the race but thought, ‘How can I do this? I’m here in Texas and I don’t know anybody out there.’ ”

Not long afterward, jockey Sasha Risenhoover came by Eoff’s barn to say goodbye as she was heading to Del Mar. She told Eoff trainer Dallas

Keen was taking horses.

“They were actually loading the van to leave to California when I called him and he said, ‘Bring her over and we’ll take her.’ ”

It turned out to make for an unforgettable summer. Terra’s Angel ran third in the Sorrento, then won the $103,000 Del Mar Juvenile Fillies Turf at a mile one start later, on Sept. 4.

“Obviously, the horse is a special horse to me just because she’s named after my daughter,” Eoff said. “At this point, that was the biggest highlight of my career in racing as far as a race won. It was definitely a moment for all of us.”

Terra’s Angel made one more start in Southern California and finished sixth in the Grade 1 Chandelier on Sept. 30.

“That was a tough race,” Eoff said. “We just probably bit off a little more than we could chew.”

Eoff said Terra’s Angel has been back home in Texas about two weeks. Risenhoover has the mount Saturday.

Analyze This Jet is part of a 12-horse field that includes Sitting Bull, third in the $60,000 Sunday Silence at Louisiana Downs, and Wild Caramelo, who won a six-furlong maiden special weight in 1:09.80 in his debut at Remington.

Analyze This Jet was a 6 1/4-length winner of a maiden special weight at a mile Oct. 4 at Remington. Lane Luzzi was aboard and has the mount Saturday.

“We entered on the turf and it went off,” Eoff said. “We definitely wanted to try him there. He’s by Overanalyze, and some of them have taken to the grass. We’re hoping he’s one of them.”