Hidden Message will need best

ARCADIA, Calif. – The good news for Hidden Message is that her nemesis Cambier Parc does not run Saturday at Santa Anita.

The bad news is Hidden Message’s odds will be much shorter in the Grade 3 Autumn Miss Stakes than the Grade 1 Del Mar Oaks. At 9-1, Hidden Message finished second to favorite Cambier Parc, who returned to win the Queen Elizabeth II at Keeneland.

Saturday at Santa Anita, Hidden Message inherits the role of favorite in the $100,000 Autumn Miss, a one-mile turf race for 3-year-old fillies in which her rivals include graded winners Mucho Unusual and Apache Princess, and four-time winner Keeper Ofthe Stars.

Simon Callaghan trains

European import Hidden Message, who shipped to California three weeks prior to the Oaks. Hidden Message broke from post 13, dropped over to the rail on the first turn under Flavien Prat, and finished well.

Following the runner-up finish, the objective for Hidden Message, a 2-for-6 listed stakes winner, was to make her a graded winner. “We were always going to target [the Autumn Miss],” Callaghan said. “She’s been on a good pattern, everything has gone perfectly.”

It will need to go perfectly in the race, also. Hidden Message is legit, but versatile Mucho Unusual is better than her Oaks seventh suggests. Mucho Unusual is appealing in the Autumn Miss based on three consecutive victories at a mile prior to misfiring in the 1 1/8-mile Oaks.

“I can’t come up with any excuses for why she didn’t fire,” trainer Tim Yakteen said. “She came back healthy, so maybe it was the mile and one-eighth.”

Mucho Unusual is 3 for 3 at a mile, including two stakes. “We’re cutting back in distance,. She’s training well into this race,” Yakteen said. “Hopefully we’re looking at a repeat of some of her efforts when she’s run a mile. She’s pretty darn versatile.”

Mucho Unusual has won 4 of 8. Victor Espinoza rides her for the first time.

Keeper Ofthe Stars is 4 for 4 in Northern California, and 0 for 5 in Southern California. However, her Del Mar fourths – in the Grade 2 San Clemente won by Mucho Unusual, and the Oaks won by Cambier Parc – put her in the picture.

A front-runner, Keeper Ofthe Stars held best of the speed in both Del Mar starts. The Autumn Miss is her first start on turf at Santa Anita.

Apache Princess is a Grade 3 winner who finished a neck behind Mucho Unusual two back; A little less talk is a multiple stakes winner from Emerald Downs making her first start on turf; Great Sister Diane earned an 88 Beyer winning a turf stakes against older fillies and mares last out at Gulfstream Park. Her speed figure matches that of Hidden Message.

The field is completed by K P Slickem, Solent, Holly Hundy, Giza Goddess, Strike At Dawn, Free My Soul and also-eligible Raymundos Secret.

The Autumn Miss is the seventh race on a nine-race card.