Callaghan will train $1.25 million filly

ARCADIA, Calif. – A Smart Strike filly purchased for $1.25 million at Monday’s Fasig-Tipton Midlantic sale of 2-year-olds in training in Timonium, Md., will be trained in Southern California by Simon Callaghan.

Callaghan said on Thursday that the filly is scheduled to arrive at his Santa Anita stable June 2. She will be owned by a partnership Callaghan declined to disclose.

The filly was purchased Monday by Ben McElroy as agent and was sent to a farm in Kentucky, Callaghan said.

“We’ll get her in, and she’ll be ready by the middle of Del Mar,” Callaghan said. “We think she’ll be a two-turn filly.”

The filly is out of Crystal Current, a stakes winner by A.P. Indy. Crystal Current is out of Dream Supreme, a six-time stakes winner in 2000 and 2001.

Callaghan said Taris, the winner of the Grade 2 Raven Run Stakes at Keeneland last fall, has resumed training. Taris finished second in the Grade 1 La Brea Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at Santa Anita last December, emerging from the race with a non-displaced condylar fracture that required the insertion of a screw to stabilize the injury.

“She’s about to start galloping,” Callaghan said. “Our main objective is the Breeders’ Cup.”

Taris, who races for Michael Tabor, Susan Magnier, and Derrick Smith, has won four of six starts and earned $333,700. She was purchased for $2.35 million last November.