Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Elm Drive runs into a familiar opponent
Elm Drive went to the sidelines after two seventh-place finishes in Grade 1 races last September and October. The promising filly resumes racing in Sunday’s $75,000 Angels Flight Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at seven furlongs at Santa Anita, and resumes her competition with the four-time stakes winner Eda.
Last August, Elm Drive and Eda finished first and second in the Grade 2 Sorrento Stakes at six furlongs at Del Mar. A month later, they were seventh and fifth in the Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante at seven furlongs, the victims of a speed duel.
Elm Drive was seventh in the Grade 2 Chandelier Stakes at 1 1/16 miles at Santa Anita last October before trainer Phil D’Amato called time on her season.
“I think she needed a freshening,” D’Amato said on Friday. “She was a nice filly early on for us last year. We were chasing the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies dream.”
Elm Drive has worked well in recent weeks. She had a five-furlong workout in 58.80 seconds last Sunday.
“I sat her off a pair of horses and had her come and get them,” D’Amato said. “She did it the right way. She’s fresh and happy and she’s better around one turn.”
D’Amato said bringing Elm Drive back at seven furlongs is not ideal.
“Seven, to me, is tougher than going a mile off a layoff,” he said. “She’s had a good series of drills and she should be pretty fit.”
Elm Drive, who races for the Little Red Feather Racing partnership, could run a fine race and still lose to Eda, who races for Susan and Charles Chu’s Baoma Corp.
Eda is on a four-race winning streak that includes the Grade 1 Starlet Stakes at 1 1/16 miles at Los Alamitos in December and her lone start this year in the Grade 3 Santa Ysabel Stakes at 1 1/16 miles at Santa Anita in March. Eda joined trainer Sean McCarthy’s stable in early April, when previous trainer Bob Baffert began his 90-day suspension for Medina Spirit’s medication violation in the 2021 Kentucky Derby.
Eda set the pace in her two wins at 1 1/16 miles, and was second early in two wins in sprint stakes last October and November.
“It’s great that she can sprint and great she can route,” McCarthy said. “She’s tactical. The seven-eighths is a great spot to start her back.”
McCarthy said he was particularly enthused by Eda’s latest workout, five furlongs in 1:00.80 last Sunday.
The Angels Flight, the fifth race on a 10-race program, drew a field of six. Eda and Elm Drive are the only graded stakes winners. Unsolved Mystery won the Arizona Oaks at Turf Paradise in May.
Classical Romance, Empire Gal, and Kirstenbosch are the other runners. This is the 3-year-old debut for Empire Gal, who won her only start last November in a sprint at Del Mar.