Becca Taylor faces only four in Desert Stormer

ARCADIA, Calif. – The Grade 3 Desert Stormer Stakes has been resuscitated, barely.

A six-furlong sprint for fillies and mares, the Desert Stormer returns Saturday at Santa Anita after it was canceled last year due to insufficient entries. The previous five editions of the $100,000 Desert Stormer averaged five starters. It drew five again this year.

The short field is a sign of the times. Another sign of the times is that Nick Alexander still breeds top horses in California, including several trained by Steve Miyadi.

Those include Becca Taylor, a 7-for-8 stakes winner seeking her first graded victory as the likely favorite in the Desert Stormer, race 2 Saturday. Becca Taylor drew the outside post against front-runner Dance to the Music, stakes winners Samurai Charm and Dynasty of Her Own, and longshot field-filler Annie Graham.

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Becca Taylor won her first four starts, from late 2020 through early 2021, prior to a layoff of nearly 10 months. When she returned this year as a 4-year-old, she was a faster filly whose typical dirt-sprint Beyer Figures in the 85-86 range top the Saturday stakes.

Sired by Old Topper, Becca Taylor was produced by Lady Sax, whom Alexander claimed from a debut victory in a $32,000 maiden-claiming race at Santa Anita in 2004. Lady Sax never ran again, but her foals include 14-race winner Sax, multiple allowance winner Hail Mary, and the best of the lot – Becca Taylor.

A Cal-bred stakes winner in April 2021, Becca Taylor’s 2022 campaign is a nose short of perfect. After winning the Spring Fever Stakes for statebred fillies and mares here in February, she suffered her only defeat in a hillside turf stakes. Last time out, Becca Taylor won an allowance at Golden Gate over next-out winner Lagatha.

Juan Hernandez rides Becca Taylor from the outside, where she can set the pace, press the pace, or rally from behind. She has won employing all three styles, and is among the list of Miyadi-Alexander stakes winners that includes Desmond Doss, Lieutenant Dan, and Tough Sunday. Becca Taylor has earned $319,160.

Although the last three Desert Stormers were won by odds-on favorites, there are reasons to support the likely pacesetter this year at a higher price. She is Dance to the Music, who last year as a 2-year-old won her debut by more than four lengths and finished second in the Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante.

Mark Glatt trains Dance to the Music, who returned from a seven-month layoff May 7 and wired an entry-level allowance.

“Her comeback race was good and solid, she did what she had to do,” Glatt said. “I’m sure she was a little bit on the rusty side with a bit of a layoff.”

Dance to the Music gets an eight-pound break (116-124) from the favorite, and from the inside post, jockey Abel Cedillo is expected to try to wire the field. The Desert Stormer is her second start back.