Adare Manor looks unstoppable in Santa Margarita

Adare Manor, who will start as a heavy favorite in Sunday’s Grade 2 Santa Margarita Stakes at Santa Anita, has had one jockey since the beginning of 2023, Juan Hernandez.

As a team, they are almost unbeatable, having won 6 of 9 starts. Hernandez was aboard Adare Manor for a four-race winning streak last year that included the Santa Margarita Stakes, and for the 5-year-old mare’s latest success, a runaway win in the Grade 1 Apple Blossom Handicap at Oaklawn Park on April 13.

Adare Manor won the $1.25 million Apple Blossom Handicap at 1 1/16 miles by an emphatic 5 1/2 lengths as the 123-pound topweight in a field of nine. Adare Manor led throughout, widening her lead through the stretch.

“I saw a lot of improvement from her,” Hernandez said. “She broke really, really sharp. She was trying to win out of the gate. She wanted to put herself on the lead.”

That is not the sort of assesment the owners and trainers of Blue Dream Machine, Coffee in Bed, Hennys Crazy Train, and Super Shine want to hear in advance of the $200,000 Santa Margarita, which is run at 1 1/8 miles on dirt.

Blue Dream Machine, fourth behind Coffee in Bed and Super Shine in the Grade 2 Santa Maria Stakes on April 21, was supplemented to the Santa Margarita for $4,000 when entries were taken on Thursday. She will be making only her third start on Sunday.

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Coffee in Bed won her first stakes in the Santa Maria, rebounding from a dull sixth in the Beholder Mile on March 9. Hennys Crazy Train won an allowance race at 1 1/8 miles on turf on May 4 for her eighth victory in her 25th start. The Santa Margarita will be her stakes debut.

Super Shine was a three-time Group 2 winner on turf and dirt in Argentina in 2022 and 2023, and had her American debut in the Santa Maria. She set the pace before losing by a neck to Coffee in Bed.

Phil D’Amato, who trains Super Shine, said on Friday that in addition to the Santa Margarita he is considering Monday’s Grade 1 Gamely Stakes on turf at Santa Anita.

In the Santa Margarita, Super Shine is a potential pacesetter.

“I want to find the best chance for her to win a race,” he said. “If it’s in the dirt race, or the Grade 1 grass race, we’ll have to see who goes where.”

Adare Manor, who races for Michael Lund Petersen and trainer Bob Baffert, will start from the outside in the small field. As she showed at Oaklawn, and on occasion last year, Adare Manor can set the pace.

The win at Oaklawn ended a two-race losing streak consisting of a seventh by three lengths in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Santa Anita last November and a second to Sharp Azteca in the Grade 1 Beholder Mile in her 2024 debut on March 9.

A win on Sunday would be Adare Manor’s seventh stakes victory.

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