Bayakoa 14 lack credentials

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - The recent retirements of the Grade 1 winners Healthy Addiction, Hollywood Story, and Star Parade have left a glaring gap at the top of the filly and mare dirt division in California.

Any of those fillies would be an odds-on favorite in Sunday's $150,000 Bayakoa Handicap at Hollywood Park. None of the 14 fillies and mares entered in the Grade 2 race over 1 1/16 miles has won a graded stakes on dirt in the United States this year.

Dona Amelia won a Group 3 race on turf in Chile in March. Gins Majesty won the Grade 3 Ballerina Breeders' Cup Stakes at Hastings Park in Canada in October. And Foxysox won two Grade 3 stakes for 3-year-olds on turf earlier this year.

Foxysox, trained by Carla Gaines for Warren Williamson, is the 118-pound starting highweight in a race that Gaines classifies as an "experiment." Foxysox has trained on the main track at Hollywood Park but has never run on the surface.

A 3-year-old, Foxysox was 10th in the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup at Keeneland on Oct. 14, her fourth consecutive loss. Gaines dismissed that race after talking with jockey Corey Nakatani.

"She had a bad trip, and according to Corey, she didn't like the turf course," Gaines said. "It was a disaster from start to finish."

For the Bayakoa, Foxysox will be ridden by Victor Espinoza. Gaines expects a big performance.

"She's always worked astoundingly well on the dirt," she said.

Foxysox races from off the pace and should have ample pace to follow in the Bayakoa. The field includes several quick fillies, including Bella Banissa, who won a hillside turf sprint at Santa Anita in October, and Slew Peg, who was third in the Turfway Park Breeders' Cup Stakes in September.

Neuilly, the winner of the restricted Adoration Handicap at Del Mar in August, was entered but may not run because she drew the outside post, said her trainer, Bobby Frankel.

"I'll probably not run," he said. "She got a bad post. I'll handicap the race."

Her defection would leave Silver Highlight with the outside post. Trained by Edward Freeman, Silver Highlight has placed in three stakes this year, including a nose loss in the Maple Leaf Stakes over 1 1/4 miles at Woodbine on Nov. 11.

"She had to convince me that she could run because of the ship and the three weeks between races," Freeman said. "She's training unbelievably. We didn't get any favors with the draw."