Baltas loaded for Santa Ana

Midnight Crossing likes to be on the front end, Lucy De prefers to race midpack, and Madam Dancealot rallies from way downtown.

“We’ve got them surrounded,” said their trainer, Richard Baltas.

Baltas will send out all three on Sunday at Santa Anita in the Grade 2, $200,000 Santa Ana Stakes, a 1 1/8-mile grass race for older females that drew a field of nine, but likely is to be smaller. Fault, who won the Grade 2 Buena Vista last time out – beating, among others, Madam Dancealot – is entered in the Santa Margarita on Saturday and was intended to go there in search of a Grade 1 win, trainer Phil D’Amato said Friday.

Madam Dancealot was favored in the one-mile Buena Vista, but her closing charge only got her to fifth by race’s end. She gets an extra furlong on Sunday.

“I was a little disappointed with her last race, because she had been training so well,” Baltas said Friday morning. “The winner ran a great race.”

Baltas was not unhappy to learn Fault likely would run Saturday.

Lucy De is making her graded stakes debut after winning 2 of her last 3 starts against allowance company. Both wins have come since blinkers were removed.

“Obviously she’s improved a lot since we took the blinkers off,” Baltas said.

Midnight Crossing scored a front-running victory in the Grade 3 Robert Frankel in her first start for Baltas on Dec. 30 over this course and at this distance. She most recently faded after setting the pace in the Grade 3 Suwannee River at Gulfstream on Feb. 10, and she is reunited with Brice Blanc, who rode her in the Frankel.

“I liked her breeze the other day with Brice,” Baltas said of a half-mile move in 49 seconds on Tuesday.

Another major player is Sassy Little Lila, fourth in the Buena Vista in her first start for trainer Richard Mandella, but twice a runner-up in Grade 1 company.

Rain was forecast in the area for Friday night into Saturday morning, so there still could be some give in the ground on Sunday.

The Santa Ana is race 8 on a nine-race card that begins at 11:30 a.m. Pacific, so make sure you have three shots of espresso to get going early.

KEY CONTENDERS

Madam Dancealot, by Sir Prancealot Last 3 Beyers: 92-93-94

◗ She had finished in the money in six straight, including two victories, before her last start. Lucy De, by Decarchy Last 3 Beyers: 89-87-81

◗ She is in career-best form right now, so even though this is a jump in class it seems she’s deserving of the opportunity.

Midnight Crossing, by Dark Angel Last 3 Beyers: 86-92-79

◗ She got away with a soft pace when winning the Frankel, but she could be compromised Sunday by the horse just to her outside, Sassy Little Lila.

Sassy Little Lila, by Artie Schiller Last 3 Beyers: 93-81-95

◗ Drawn widest of all, she has the speed to make the lead and has a right to improve off her last start, which was her first race in 3 1/2 months.