Belvoir Bay may come right back in Buena Vista Stakes

ARCADIA, Calif. – Belvoir Bay may not be idle for long following her comfortable win in the Wishing Well Stakes last Saturday at Santa Anita.

Trainer Peter Miller said Sunday that Belvoir Bay could start in the Grade 2 Buena Vista Stakes at a mile on turf for fillies and mares this Saturday.

“It’s not out of the question to bring her back,” he said.

Miller emphasized that he will follow Belvoir Bay’s progress this week before deciding whether the 6-year-old mare will start.

Owned by Gary Barber, Belvoir Bay won the Wishing Well Stakes at five furlongs on turf by 4 3/4 lengths after disputing the early pace. Belvoir Bay won her ninth stakes in her 24th start in the Wishing Well.

“She was awesome,” Miller said. “She never stops amazing me.”

The field for the $200,000 Buena Vista Stakes is expected to be led by Vasilika, who has won 9 of her last 10 starts, including four graded stakes.

The Wishing Well Stakes was scheduled for about 6 1/2 furlongs on the hillside turf course, but was switched to five furlongs on the oval course because of rain on Friday. Santa Anita recently changed its policy for races that come off the hillside turf course because of wet conditions, giving the track the option of running a race at five furlongs on turf instead of 6 1/2 furlongs on dirt.

The Wishing Well Stakes was the first instance of that happening.

In the most recent condition book, which describes the intended races for coming weeks, the track stated that races scheduled for 1 1/4 miles that begin on the hillside turf course may be changed to 1 1/8 miles on the oval turf course and races scheduled to begin at 1 3/4 miles on the hillside turf course could be shifted to 1 1/2 miles on the oval.