Beau Recall in pivotal spot

ARCADIA, Calif. – Beau Recall will run in the shortest race of her American career in Saturday’s Grade 3 Las Cienegas Stakes at Santa Anita in an effort to produce the best race of her career.

The $100,000 Las Cienegas Stakes is run at about 6 1/2 furlongs on the hillside turf course, and will be Beau Recall’s first start in a turf sprint since she won a 2016 maiden race at seven furlongs on turf in Ireland at 2.

Last year, Beau Recall was second in four stakes, including a nose loss in the Grade 1 Del Mar Oaks at 1 1/8 miles on turf in August. On Dec. 31, Beau Recall was fifth, beaten 3 1/2 lengths in the Grade 1 American Oaks at 1 1/4 miles on turf at Santa Anita.

“We felt 1 1/4 miles was too far for her last time,” trainer Simon Callaghan said Thursday. “This is quite a drastic distance change, but we always initially planned to start her off down the hill.”

Owned by Slam Dunk Racing and Medallion Racing, Beau Recall is part of a field of nine in the Las Cienegas, the only graded stakes at Santa Anita this weekend.

Callaghan said the Las Cienegas will determine Beau Recall’s immediate career path. She ran in four consecutive Grade 1 races in the second half of 2017.

The Irish-bred filly could stay in turf sprints through the first half of the year with a successful race Saturday.

“She’s got a good turn of foot and I think she’ll be running late,” he said. “It’s more than a matter of seeing how she goes. If she goes well down the hill, we could keep her down the hill or stretch her back out.”

Selcourt eyes Santa Monica

Selcourt won her 4-year-old debut by 7 1/2 lengths in the Kalookan Queen Stakes at Santa Anita last Sunday, and trainer John Sadler hopes to start her in the Grade 2 Santa Monica Stakes in March and perhaps the Grade 1 Beholder Mile in June.

The Kalookan Queen Stakes, at 6 1/2 furlongs, was the first stakes victory for Selcourt. She led throughout the Kalookan Queen and pulled clear to win in 1:15.88.

The Grade 2 Santa Monica Stakes will be run at seven furlongs March 24.

“She’s a stakes winner, which is important for fillies and mares, and now I want to see her get a [graded] stakes win,” Sadler said.

Sadler rates Selcourt as a filly who can compete with Grade 1 winners Unique Bella and Paradise Woods.

“I could see her stretching into the Beholder Mile,” he said.

Selcourt has won 2 of 4 starts and earned $103,920. Selcourt races for breeder Keith Abrahams, Medallion Racing, and Sandra Lazaruk.

Hoppertunity drills for San Pasqual

Hoppertunity worked five furlongs in 1:00 on Thursday in preparation for an expected start in the Grade 2 San Pasqual Stakes at Santa Anita on Feb. 3.

The $200,000 San Pasqual Stakes is run at 1 1/8 miles, and essentially has traded places on the Santa Anita calendar with the San Antonio Stakes.

Hoppertunity won the Grade 2 San Antonio Stakes in early February the last two winterspring meets. This meet, the San Antonio was run on the Dec. 26 opening day of the meet, and Hoppertunity finished fourth.

Trained by Bob Baffert for Mike Pegram, Karl Watson, and Paul Weitman, Hoppertunity, 7, has won 7 of 29 starts and earned $4,347,025. He won the Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park in 2016, and was third in the Dubai World Cup behind California Chrome earlier that season.

Gleis, Fly Till Dawn’s owner, dies

Josephine T. Gleis, whose top-class turf horse Fly Till Dawn was a four-time Grade 1 stakes winner and one of the top runners in the country in the early 1990s, died at her home in Newport Beach, Calif., on Sunday at age 105.

“She had her faculties all the way to the end,” said her grandson Rick Hausman, who said he and his grandmother bonded over their love of racing. “It was a great connection I had with her.”

Fly Till Dawn, trained by Darrell Vienna, won 10 of 27 starts and earned more than $1.5 million during a career that saw him win the San Luis Rey Stakes and San Juan Capistrano Invitational Handicap at Santa Anita in 1992, the Eddie Read at Del Mar in 1990, and the Budweiser International Handicap at Laurel in 1990, all Grade 1 races at the time. He also captured the Grade 2 Citation at Hollywood Park and Grade 3 Arcadia and San Marcos at Santa Anita.

Fly Till Dawn, a son of Swing Till Dawn who was a foal of 1986, was bred by Gleis in Kentucky. He died at age 30 in 2016.

Gleis was a longtime benefactor of numerous healthrelated endeavors in Orange County, Calif., most notably in regard to eye disease. She suffered from macular degeneration.

Gleis is survived by one son, eight grandchildren, 17 great-grandchildren, and four great-great-grandchildren. A daughter – Hausman’s mother, Marilyn – preceded her in death. Gleis’s son Gavin Herbert Jr. is a co-founder of the eye-care company Allergan.

Graveside services will be private, Hausman said.