Interesting card has a little bit of everything

ARCADIA, Calif. – The sun did not shine, and it was too wet to play. But will midweek rain affect racing Friday?

Santa Anita officials were hopeful a minor storm would recede late Thursday and allow four races Friday to remain on turf. Assuming an accurate forecast, racing secretary Chris Merz is confident the track will catch a break.

“The grass course has soaked up water really well through the course of the meet, so we might get a little lucky,” Merz said Wednesday morning at Santa Anita. “If it just continues to sprinkle, like right now, we’ve got a good shot – weather permitting.”

Notwithstanding surface uncertainty, the interesting card runs the gamut. It includes a filly-mare turf allowance that looks like a minor stakes, a dirt sprint for maiden fillies including a well-bred first-time starter, a California-bred turf allowance with one of the card’s most probable winners, and an allowance dirt sprint to finish the eight-race program.

Race 3 on Friday is the “feature,” a $65,000 two-otherthan/classified allowance for filly-mare turf milers normally run later on the card. Merz positioned it early to be included in the Stronach 5, which was subsequently postponed due to the cancellation of Friday racing at Laurel. The wager, with a $154,931 carryover, resumes March 19.

“We thought it would be a great idea to put that race there to showcase our better horses,” Merz said referring to Santa Anita’s third. “It was a nice, gritty turf race in the sequence.”

It still is an appealing race, just one with less national attention. Nine were entered, including likely favorite On

Mars, graded stakes-winning comebacker Laura’s Light, and stakes-winning comebacker Ippodamia’s Girl.

“It looks like a mini-stakes race, in my eyes,” said Phil D’Amato, trainer of On Mars. His filly will be tough based on her recent runner-up finish, by a neck, in a similar race. The trouble-prone filly stumbled at the start, recovered, and might have won except jockey Mike Smith lost his whip in the stretch.

“He didn’t have the ability to flag her other than using his hand,” D’Amato said. “He thought that that cost her the win.”

Despite an inordinate number of troubled trips, On Mars has won three of her last six starts.

“She’s a filly that is slowly going up the ladder, steadily improving, and I’m looking to run her in bigger and better spots,” D’Amato said. He also entered Miss Bigly, who is better on dirt.

Laura’s Light, a four-time stakes winner trained by Peter Miller, is making her first start since finishing sixth as the favorite in the Grade 1 Del Mar Oaks last summer. Stakes winner Ippodamia’s Girl, now trained by Richard Baltas, runs for the first time since November 2019. Others entered include Neige Blanche, Moonhall Milly, and She’s Our Charm.

Race 4 features the career debut of Missy P., full sibling to Grade 1-winning millionaire Mia Mischief. Richard Mandella trains Missy P., an Into Mischief filly who is the only 3-year-old in the field. She will break from the outside post at 5 1/2 furlongs.

“She trains good, like she can run,” Mandella said. “I wouldn’t say she’s the next Beholder yet, but she trains good.”

Missy P. will not need Beholder-like ability to win a maiden race, and based on her Feb. 26 team work with stakes winner Astute, Missy P. figures to be strongly favored under Flavien Prat. Her modest rivals include Reem, making her second start following a layoff, fast-working debut 5-year-old Mongolian Panther, and second-time starter Rattrapante.

Race 5 is a California-bred allowance turf mile. Burnin Turf benefits by a distance cutback after finishing third by a half-length at 1 1/8 miles. Burnin Turf, trained by Dan Blacker, has earned higher speed figures each successive start. He will be ridden by meet leader Prat, who rides all eight races Friday, including as many as five potential favorites.

The main rival for Burnin Turf is D’Amato-trained comebacker George Herman Ruth, a first-time gelding whose undescended testicle was bothering him last spring.

“They removed a nut that was deep inside his cavity, and it helped a lot,” D’Amato said.

Race 8, a six-furlong entrylevel allowance, includes possible favorite Canadian Pride, upset candidate Colt Fiction, comebacker Adare, and lastout $32,000 claiming winner Howbeit.

Peter Eurton trains Canadian Pride, who shortens to one turn after losing his punch late in successive races at one mile.

“His best numbers are sprinting,” Eurton acknowledged. “He’s probably the fastest horse if he runs back to his sprint” in fall at Santa Anita.

Canadian Pride won a maiden race with a 95 Beyer, the field’s top California figure. And as Eurton noted “this field isn’t as salty as some of the races he’s run in.” He finished fourth last out behind three rivals that all won since. Two starts back, Canadian Pride finished second to subsequent graded winner Kiss Today Goodbye.