Short rest a question for Bay Storm

ARCADIA, Calif. – Easy money for Bay Storm on Saturday at Santa Anita? Not really, even if the multiple stakes winner shortens to her preferred distance and enters the $100,000 Wishing Well Stakes as the class of the field.

Bay Storm is hardly a cinch. That is partly because she has never run back on short rest, and also because most of the nine entrants in the Wishing Well, a filly-mare hillside sprint, enter the stakes in top form.

None are sharper than Bay Storm, who wheels back in two weeks and drops in class after a gallant runner-up finish in a Grade 3 turf mile. Perhaps if her rivals Saturday were modest, or if Bay Storm had more time between starts, the outcome would be predictable.

But the challenges facing Bay Storm are conspicuous, including a host of rivals with legitimate credentials. Topping the list are in-form California-bred stakes winners Big Summer and Eddie’s New Dream, along with sharp allowance winners Stella Noir, Countess Rosina, and Freedom Flyer.

The Wishing Well is restricted to fillies and mares who are non-winners of a graded stakes since Aug. 1. Bay Storm slides under the conditions following second- and third-place finishes in three successive graded races.

Jonathan Thomas trains Bay Storm, who shipped from Florida to California for her local debut Feb. 4 in the onemile Megahertz. The distance, Thomas acknowledges, “was probably a little bit farther than ideal for her.” Bay Storm nearly pulled it off.

She set a soft pace, ran her final quarter-mile in a quick 22.78 seconds, but was collared by last-to-first winner Quattroelle. Bay Storm ran super in the mile race, but she prefers a shorter trip. She gets it Saturday in the 6 1/2-furlong Wishing Well.

“There’s no doubt the cutback for her is ideal,” Thomas said. “Her ideal trip is somewhere between six and seven.”

Bay Storm, who has won four races and $509,080 from 12 starts for Bridlewood Farm, will be ridden by Kazushi Kimura.

The quick turnaround creates uncertainty.

“She’s a smaller filly, and wheeling back in two weeks off a ship and a hard effort is a bit of a concern,” Thomas said. “But she’s always been pretty reliable.”

Bay Storm has remained in California with trainer Michael McCarthy since the Megahertz.

Big Summer enters the Wishing Well with no worries. Her Jan. 7 win in a $150,000 California-bred stakes made her 2 for 2 on the hill for owners Bob Abrams, Mitchell Dutko, and Michael Paran.

Carla Gaines trains Big

Summer.

“I wish I could take credit, but she’s just a little champion,” Gaines said. “She eats well, she trains beautifully, she’s a happy filly. And she seems to really take to the hill.”

Joe Bravo rides Big Summer, who has four wins and five seconds from 11 starts. A sibling to stakes winners Ultimate Bango and Tribalist, Big Summer has earned $295,160.

Eddie’s New Dream, runnerup to Big Summer last out, is a two-time California-bred stakes winner on the hill for Reddam Racing and trainer Ben Cecil.