Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Fighting Mad favored despite layoff
ARCADIA, Calif. – A spring rematch between California’s top older females is two months away, and preparation gets serious this weekend at Santa Anita.
Fighting Mad launches her comeback on Saturday at Santa Anita as likely favorite in the Grade 3 La Canada Stakes, a 1 1/16-mile race that is her first start since a disappointing third in September that knocked her out of the Breeders’ Cup Distaff.
Harvest Moon also will buckle down. Her autumn upset over Fighting Mad propelled her to the head of the division, which she validated with a solid fourth in the BC Distaff. Harvest Moon is scheduled for her first comeback breeze this weekend.
Fighting Mad and Harvest Moon are expected to meet March 13 in the Grade 1 Beholder Mile. Fighting Mad will be racing-fit; Harvest Moon will enter fresh.
“She’s galloping and is going to have her first breeze back this weekend,” trainer Simon Callaghan said early this week.
Others may emerge out of the $200,000 La Canada on Saturday. Seven fillies and mares were entered, including quirky Hard Not to Love, Chilean Group 1 winner Sanenus, and Grade 3 winner Proud Emma. Message, Miss Stormy D, and Never Be Enough also are entered.
To win the La Canada, they must catch front-runner Fighting Mad, who won highly rated Grade 1 and Grade 2 races last year. Plans changed after her odds-on third to Harvest Moon in the Grade 2 Zenyatta Stakes on Sept. 27.
“We were thinking Breeders’ Cup with [Fighting Mad], but I didn’t like her race, so we just backed off,” trainer Bob Baffert said. Fighting Mad is racing Saturday for the first time since.
“She’s been working really well, and we know she’s a really good horse,” Baffert said.
Fighting Mad, 5 for 9, is the only La Canada starter to earn triple-digit Beyer Speed Figures around two turns, which she did twice. Abel Cedillo rides Fighting Mad.
Sanenus makes her first start in California and first U.S. start around two turns after a pair of solid efforts in one-turn miles at Churchill Downs. Those include a runner-up finish in the Grade 3 Chilukki Stakes. The question facing Sanenus – can she stay two turns?
“That’s a little bit of an X-factor,” trainer Michael McCarthy acknowledged. “Two turns at a mile and a sixteenth over a totally different type of racing surface. Churchill Downs is a little harder, a little faster. This track is a little deeper and a little more demanding, so we’re going to find out a lot about her on Saturday.”
Umberto Rispoli rides Sanenus, whose tactical speed could allow her to be positioned second behind Fighting Mad.
Hard Not to Love will be making her first start since finishing second in the Zenyatta. Winner of Grade 1 and Grade 2 sprints, her four routes produced three seconds. Regular rider Mike Smith jumps to Miss Stormy D. Ricardo Gonzalez rides Hard Not to Love.
The La Canada is race 8 on Saturday; the Grade 3 Las Cienegas Stakes for female turf sprinters is race 9.