Baltas will roll the dice with Going to Vegas in BC Filly and Mare Turf
ARCADIA, Calif. – Going to Vegas and Luck gave trainer Richard Baltas a career-first 1-2 finish in a Grade 1 race in Saturday’s $302,000 Rodeo Drive Stakes for fillies and mares at Santa Anita.
As of Sunday, only Going to Vegas is definite for the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Del Mar on Nov. 6, having earned a fees-paid berth with the Rodeo Drive win.
Luck could be held out of the BC Filly and Mare Turf in favor of one or two stakes for fillies and mares at the Del Mar autumn meeting – the Grade 2 Goldikova Stakes on Nov. 6, or the Grade 1 Matriarch Stakes on Nov. 28, Baltas said.
“I don’t know if she’ll run in there,” Baltas said of Luck’s participation in the BC Filly and Mare Turf.
He said conversations with owners Larry, Nancy, and Jaime Roth – who race as the LNJ Foxwoods stable – would determine a course of action.
“She deserves to have a look at it,” Baltas said.
Going to Vegas, owned by Abbondanza Racing, Medallion Racing, and the MyRacehorse syndicate, led throughout the Rodeo Drive at 1 1/4 miles on turf to record her second consecutive stakes win and first in a Grade 1. Going to Vegas, claimed for $50,000 in June 2020, won the Grade 2 John Mabee Stakes at Del Mar from a stalking position on Sept. 4.
“She doesn’t have to have the lead,” Baltas said. “She was second at Del Mar. If someone wants it, she can sit close.”