Attima faces older stakes rivals

ARCADIA, Calif. - Trainer Julio Canani has lofty goals for Attima this year. The winner of two graded stakes last summer, Attima will attempt to win her fourth stakes in Monday's $150,000 Buena Vista Handicap at Santa Anita.

Canani is hoping the Buena Vista will lead Attima to more lucrative stakes later this year, such as the $750,000 CashCall Mile at Hollywood Park in the summer.

In the Grade 2 Buena Vista, run at a mile on turf for fillies and mares, the 4-year-old Attima will be trying to win her first graded stakes outside the 3-year-old division. Last spring and summer, she won the Grade 2 Honeymoon Breeders' Cup Handicap at Hollywood Park and the Grade 2 San Clemente Handicap at Del Mar.

Attima lost her final two starts of 2006, including a ninth in the Grade 1 Matriarch Stakes against older fillies and mares at Hollywood Park on Nov. 26. She emerged from that race with an illness that required a few weeks' rest.

"The next day it was like she was dead," Canani said.

In her only subsequent start, Attima won the Wishing Well Handicap on the 6 1/2-furlong hillside turf course on Jan. 28, rallying from third to score by 1 3/4 lengths as the favorite. The race showed Canani that Attima was back in form.

Attima is likely to be near the front in the Buena Vista, which may have a quick pace. Mea Domina, a four-time stakes winner, and Berbatim, who won the 2005 Providencia Stakes here, often race near the front.

Attima and Mea Domina carry top weight of 120 pounds, spotting the rest of the field four to seven pounds.

Trainer Paddy Gallagher has two starters - Clinet (116 pounds) and Singalong (114).

Clinet was second in the Grade 3 Monrovia Handicap on the hillside turf course on Jan. 1, her only start at his meeting. A stakes winner in Dubai last February, she is winless in three starts in this country.

"She's got a good turn of foot," Gallagher said.

Singalong was promoted from second to first in the Tuzla Handicap at a mile on turf here on Jan. 24. She finished 1 1/2 lengths behind Conveyor's Angel after encountering trouble on the final turn and a wide trip.

"She got blocked and she still came on to be second," Gallagher said. "We were lucky to get moved up."

Conveyor's Angel, who was demoted to seventh in the Tuzla, returns in the Buena Vista.