Irish fillies back to best game

ARCADIA, Calif. – A pair of Irish fillies may feel right at home Saturday at Santa Anita, where they switch to the hillside turf course for the $100,000 Sweet Life Stakes.

The turf sprint for 3-yearold fillies is ideal for Manhattan Jungle and Havana Angel, Group 3-placed sprinters in Europe before their progress stalled at longer distances or on new footing. Saturday at Santa Anita, they are doing what they do best – sprint on turf.

Michael McCarthy trains Manhattan Jungle, the likely favorite cutting back to 6 1/2 furlongs after a creditable runner-up finish in a one-mile turf stakes.

“Excited to see how she takes to the hill,” McCarthy said. “Her better races are going short.”

Same with Havana Angel, unplaced in both U.S. starts, with excuses.

“The distance was too far for her,” trainer Leonard Powell said of the one-mile Del Mar Juvenile Fillies Turf. Last out in a sprint at Golden Gate, Powell said, “I thought she would handle synthetic, and she didn’t. She’s better than that.”

Manhattan Jungle and Havana Angel top the Sweet Life, downgraded this year from Grade 3 to listed. The stakes drew 11 entrants, including last-out maiden-claiming winner Itzel, route-to-sprint Ragtime Rose, Grade 3-placed surface-switcher Satin Doll, and front-runner Fun Money.

The Sweet Life is race 9 on Saturday; the 10th and final race is a turf sprint that marks the career debut of $1.55 million yearling Nuclear. John Sadler trains the well-regarded 3-yearold, a son of Justify who is expected to run well but probably wants farther than six furlongs.

A cutback in distance benefits Sweet Life entrant Manhattan Jungle, who won her first three sprints in France including a stakes in her third start after being purchased privately by Eclipse Thoroughbreds and partners. Manhattan Jungle subsequently placed in a pair of Group 3 races and made her U.S. debut in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf.

It was a tough spot for an 80-1 sprint filly, but Manhattan Jungle actually ran well. She pressed the pace to deep stretch and finished eighth. In her California debut and first start for McCarthy, Manhattan Jungle finished second behind a looseon-the-lead winner in the onemile Blue Norther Stakes.

“I was very pleased with the way she ran, and this is something we’ve had circled for a while,” McCarthy said, referring to the Sweet Life. Frankie Dettori rides Manhattan Jungle.

While expectations are high for the Sweet Life favorites, race 10 debut colt Nuclear could find six furlongs shorter than he prefers.

“He’s a big horse, and I like him,” Sadler said, but he added that Nuclear will “probably be better a litter farther. That being said, I expect him to run well.”

Nuclear is by Justify, whose progeny have won 5 of 11 turf sprints, according to DRF Formulator. Sadler won a Jan. 21 maiden turf sprint with the Justify colt Hawker. The trainer noted Justify is by the outstanding turf stallion Scat Daddy.

Justify “is going to be a dual surface-type stallion, turf and dirt,” Sadler predicted.