Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint: L.A. Woman small race with big impact
It’s “just a little $100,000” stakes, as Bob Baffert called it early this week, but the ungraded L.A. Woman Stakes on Saturday at Santa Anita could be one of the bigger preps toward the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint.
Baffert said he intended to run both Book Review and Executiveprivelege in the 6 1/2-furlong race, while Ron Ellis also said he will run Teddy’s Promise.
“The distance, surface, and timing all fit,” Ellis said. “It’s right here at home on the dirt, and four weeks later you stretch out a little bit to the seven-eighths” of the Nov. 1 Filly and Mare Sprint.
Teddy’s Promise set the pace last year in the Filly and Mare Sprint before fading to eighth, but as a winner of three stakes since then, “she’s got a better chance this year,” Ellis said. “She’s training lights-out for this.”
The L.A. Woman is one of just two notable races remaining on the prep schedule for the Filly and Mare Sprint. The other, the Grade 2 Thoroughbred Club of America Stakes at Keeneland, will be run a few hours earlier Saturday; it’s a Win and You’re In race with Groupie Doll a heavy favorite. Last year, Groupie Doll won the TCA and BC Filly and Mare Sprint en route to being voted the Eclipse winner in the division.
Among the other expected starters for the six-furlong TCA are Judy the Beauty, Gypsy Robin, and Purely Hot.
From Florida, trainer Marty Wolfson said he is intending to run Starship Truffles in the Filly and Mare Sprint and that he also is hoping My Pal Chrisy, winner of the Sept. 21 Musical Romance at Calder, will be supplemented for $90,000 by her owners, Miller Racing LLC.
From California, trainer Peter Miller said Reneesgotzip, arguably the top female sprinter on the West Coast, will not be pre-entered in the Filly and Mare Sprint and will go against male rivals in the Sprint or Turf Sprint.
From New York, trainer Chad Brown said he has declared 3-year-old My Happy Face from consideration for the Filly and Mare Sprint.