Santa Anita: Travesura must overcome outside post in Blue Norther

Benoit & Associates

Travesura breaks from post 11 in the Blue Norther. "She'll need a little luck," trainer Jeff Mullins said.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Travesura has thrived in the five weeks since she won the Grade 3 Miesque Stakes for 2-year-old fillies on turf at Betfair Hollywood Park.

Travesura’s form is a consolation to trainer Jeff Mullins after she drew the outside post for Tuesday’s $75,000 Blue Norther Stakes for 3-year-old fillies over a mile on turf at Santa Anita. Travesura has post 11 in the Blue Norther. Three others are on the also-eligible list.

“It’s not the best post to have, that’s for sure,” Mullins said. “She’ll have to overcome it. She’ll need a little luck.”

While the draw was discouraging, Travesura impressed Mullins through December with the way she trained and behaved around the barn.

“She really moved forward off that race,” he said of the Miesque. “She got confidence and she’s been training well. All of her works have been good. Sometimes when they run that hard they regress a little bit.”

Owned by Val-U-Chem Inc., Travesura has won 2 of 4 starts and $95,600. She beat maidens in a main-track sprint in her third career start and turf debut at Santa Anita on Oct. 7, and then led throughout the Miesque Stakes as an 11-1 outsider under jockey Tyler Baze.

“We didn’t want to be on the lead last time,” Mullins said. “She broke well and nobody wanted to challenge her, and [Tyler] took the initiative.”

Mullins said the tactics for Tuesday’s race depends on how the pace unfolds into the first turn. “Tyler will have to take that into his own hands and see what happens,” he said.

Travesura is the only stakes winner in the field, but must beat Scarlet Strike, who was third in the Grade 1 Hollywood Starlet Stakes on Dec. 8, and Heir Kitty, who was second against males in the Grade 2 Best Pal Stakes at Del Mar in the summer.

Heir Kitty won an allowance race over six furlongs on the synthetic main track at Hollywood Park on Dec. 7. The Blue Norther Stakes will be her first start on turf since a debut win in a six-furlong maiden race at Hollywood Park in July.

The Blue Norther will be the California debut of the well-regarded Sky High Gal, who won a maiden race and an allowance race in her last two starts at Woodbine and Churchill Downs. The Blue Norther will be her first start for trainer John Sadler.