Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Meah going out on her own
CYPRESS, Calif. – Anna Meah, an exercise rider and assistant trainer for Art Sherman and Richard Baltas for the last five years, plans to begin training this fall.
Meah and her husband, bloodstock agent David Meah, are hoping to establish a stable of 20 horses at Santa Anita following the Del Mar summer meeting.
“This has been our plan for the last three years,” Anna Meah said. “Now is the time to do it.
“We are aiming for Nov. 1 to be set up and on the track. We’ve got a foundation of clients. We expect to increase the numbers, maybe by the spring.”
Anna Meah, 25, has worked for Baltas for the last year. She was part of Sherman’s team when the stable’s star was California Chrome, the Horse of the Year in 2014 and 2016. Anna Meah occasionally worked California Chrome. She directed the stable’s operations at times when Sherman and his son Alan, an assistant trainer, traveled to Dubai.
Anna Meah said she delayed launching a stable to work for Baltas, who finished tied for fourth at the Santa Anita spring-summer meeting with 16 wins.
“I wanted to have more experience in a different barn,” she said.
David Meah, 35, has worked for trainer Doug O’Neill and has been more active in bloodstock in recent years, focusing on the European market.
Franco to miss a week or two
Jockey Geovanni Franco will not ride the first two weeks of the Los Alamitos summer meeting while recovering from a strained knee, his agent, James Giannone, said on Thursday.
Franco, 27, may ride the final week of the Los Alamitos meeting, beginning July 12, but is more likely to focus on the start of the Del Mar summer meeting, which begins July 18. Franco was second in the standings at the Santa Anita springsummer meeting that ended on June 24 with 28 wins.
“We’ve shut it down,” Giannone said. “I’m not going to hurry him.”
Giannone said Franco felt discomfort in his left knee in the last week. Franco was sidelined from early August to early November last year because of issues with his right knee.
Tisbutadream joins Cecil stable
Tisbutadream, a minor stakes winner in England last year, has joined trainer Ben Cecil’s stable for the Del Mar summer meeting. The 4-year-old filly is owned by King Power Racing, the stable of Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, the owner of the Leicester City soccer team in the English Premier League.
Leicester City famously won the Premier League title in the 2015-16 season at odds as high as 5,000-1.
Tisbutadream, previously trained by David Elsworth, arrived in Southern California this week and could start in the Grade 2 Yellow Ribbon Handicap, a $200,000 race for fillies and mares at 1 1/16 miles on turf Aug. 4, “if all goes well,” Cecil said.
By Dream Ahead, Tisbutadream has won 5 of 16 starts. She won the Coral Distaff Stakes at a mile at Sandown Park last July and was third in Group 3 races at Deauville, France, and Sandown later that summer. In her only start this year, Tisbutadream was seventh in the Group 2 Dahlia Stakes at Newmarket, England, on May 6.
McDaid gets afternoon win
Apprentice jockey Kellie McDaid, who rides regularly in evening Thoroughbred races at Los Alamitos, won her first race on the Southern California afternoon circuit when Swallows Inn Gal ($38.20) scored an upset in a maiden claimer at Los Alamitos on Thursday.
The victory was career win No. 34 for McDaid, 28. She has a seven-pound apprentice claim that will be reduced to five pounds after her 35th win.
“That means I can eat,” McDaid joked between races Thursday.
McDaid, who is from County Donegal in Ireland, works as an exercise rider for trainer Bob Baffert at Los Alamitos. Through Thursday, she had won 33 races from 136 mounts this year, a 24 percent win rate. At the Los Alamitos evening meetings, McDaid rides Thoroughbreds who race for claiming prices of $5,000 or less at 4 1/2 furlongs.
Swallows Inn Gal won a maiden claimer on the track’s one-mile oval in a race at 5 1/2 furlongs.
“This horse has gears right here,” McDaid said. “I said, ‘Keep going. This is so cool.’ ”
Swallows Inn Gal is owned and trained by Robert Lucas.
“The horse was so calm,” McDaid said. “She was like a wee princess.
“I’m grateful. I’ll see where this takes me.”
◗ Los Alamitos will resume racing on Wednesday for a Fourth of July program. There is no racing on Thursday before racing resumes for a three-day weekend on Friday.