Baltas will be happy if Mistressofthenight hits board in Santa Ysabel

ARCADIA, Calif. – Mistressofthenight has earned a chance to run in Saturday’s Grade 3 Santa Ysabel Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at Santa Anita following a stylish win in a recent maiden race.

That does not translate into expectations for a win from trainer Richard Baltas. Baltas is fully aware of the competition – the exciting two-time graded stakes winner Unique Bella and the Grade 1 winner Abel Tasman.

“I don’t think I can win the race, but with a good race, I can run second or third,” he said Wednesday.

Mistressofthenight, by Midnight Lute, won a maiden race by 4 1/4 lengths at 6 1/2 furlongs on Jan. 14, her only start this year. Last year, she was winless in four races, including an 11th-place finish in the Grade 1 Chandelier Stakes at 1 1/16 miles.

Mistressofthenight was fitted with blinkers for the first time in the Jan. 14 race and closed from last in a field of seven.

“We let her settle and make one run,” Baltas said. “Can she do that going two turns?”

Unique Bella is rated the leading 3-year-old filly in the country on the basis of easy wins by 7 1/2 lengths in the Grade 2 Santa Ynez Stakes at seven furlongs on Jan. 8 and by 8 3/4 lengths in the Grade 2 Las Virgenes Stakes at a mile on Feb. 5.

Other probable starters for the $100,000 Santa Ysabel include Noted and Quoted, who won the Chandelier Stakes here last October and has not started since finishing seventh in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies in November, Spooky Woods, Tap It All, and What What What.

Jerry Hollendorfer trains Unique Bella and Spooky Woods, a maiden-race winner on Jan. 20. Hollendorfer said on Wednesday that Sircat Sally, undefeated in three starts, is likely to start in the $75,000 China Doll Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at a mile on turf March 11.