Leggs Galore tough in return

ARCADIA, Calif. – If comeback favorite Leggs Galore picks up where she left off, her rivals are in trouble Saturday in the $75,000 Mizdirection Stakes at Santa Anita.

Six fillies and mares entered the hillside turf race that marks the first start in nearly three months for Leggs Galore, a five-time stakes winner fully recovered from a setback that interrupted her campaign just when it was getting started.

Leggs Galore won her comeback in a California-bred turf sprint stakes in January, followed by the Grade 2 Buena Vista at one mile in early March. But then she sustained a forearm wound, possibly while rolling in her stall, and it led to a layoff of nearly three months.

“She had an abrasion that got infected and forced me to skip a breeze or two,” trainer Phil D’Amato said, explaining her absence from the Grade 2 Monrovia Stakes in April. Luckily for D’Amato and ownerbreeder William Simms, the setback was temporary. Leggs Galore is ready to fire.

“She could not be doing any better,” D’Amato said. “Ricky Gonzalez breezed her and thought her last two breezes were some of her best breezes. I’m anticipating you’ll see the filly we all know and love.”

Given that 8-for-13 Leggs Galore is the class of the Mizdirection field, runs well fresh, and won her only start on the hill, the 5-year-old should be tough. Not only that, but D’Amato-trained favorites are virtually unstoppable – 17 for 31 since late February.

Other entrants in the Mizdirection include front-runner

Hear My Prayer, who could be positioned second behind the favorite. Stella Noir shortens to her preferred sprint trip; Bye Bye Bertie tries to become the meet’s first five-time winner; Royal Address drops from a fourth in a Grade 2; Bella D enters off back-to-back hillside allowance wins.

D’Amato leads the meet with 12 stakes wins, including 10 on turf, with multiple stakes starters scheduled next weekend. Going Global returns Memorial Day in the Grade 1 Gamely along with Going to Vegas, a Grade 1 winner recently transferred from Richard Baltas. Count Again tops D’Amato’s probable runners for the Grade 1 Shoemaker Mile the same day. Saturday on the Mizdirection undercard, graded winner Counterparty Risk makes her first start for D’Amato in a second-level allowance, race 7.

In order for Leggs Galore to win the Mizdirection, she must cope with pressure from front-runner Hear My Prayer. Last out at Keeneland, Hear My Prayer employed a curious strategy. She was not asked for speed, was allowed to lag while passively ridden, made a middle move, and flattened out. Trainer Vladimir Cerin could only shake his head.

Since returning to California, Hear My Prayer has worked better than ever, according to Cerin. But he acknowledged she is not easy to ride. Two starts back, Cerin said she went “way too slow, and the time before she went too fast. So now we’re hoping to run way too perfect.”

Hear My Prayer is reunited Saturday with the meet’s leading rider, Juan Hernandez. Stellar Noir will be rolling from behind under Drayden Van Dyke.