Callback can extend Baffert’s Sunland Oaks streak

The two best 3-year-old fillies in trainer Bob Baffert’s barn are Callback and Luminance. Callback got a Grade 1 win last time out in the Las Virgenes Stakes at Santa Anita. Luminance is still seeking a Grade 1 victory. So rather than have them meet in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Oaks on April 4, Baffert will send Callback to the $200,000 Sunland Park Oaks on Sunday at Sunland Park, while leaving the Santa Anita Oaks for Luminance.

Callback, though, still needs points to be assured of a spot in the May 1 Kentucky Oaks, for she earned just 10 in the Las Virgenes. The Sunland Park Oaks offers 50 points to the winner – and 85 overall – which essentially makes the race a “Win and You’re In.”

Callback, owned by the Spendthrift Farm of B. Wayne Hughes, will be heavily favored to get those 50 points. She is by far the most-accomplished of the eight fillies entered in the 1 1/16-mile race. No one else has won a graded stakes, let alone a Grade 1, and the only other stakes winner in the field – Rousanne – got that win by being placed first via disqualification.

Baffert will be going for his fifth straight win in this race. His 2011 winner, Plum Pretty, won the Kentucky Oaks.

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Trainer Henry Dominguez sends out three fillies – Fancy and Flashy, Scat Means Go, and We Need Art – all of whom have won races at Sunland.

The Sunland Park Oaks is race 9 on a 12-race card whose feature is the Grade 3, $800,000 Sunland Derby.

Sunland Park Oaks, race 9

KEY CONTENDERS

Callback (Last 3 Beyers: 85-90-79)

◗ She improved sharply in the Las Virgenes, which marked her first time around two turns, and her first start without blinkers. She bravely fought off all challengers down the lane to prevail.

Maybellene (Last 3 Beyers: 71-64-86)

◗ Like Callback, she is trained by Baffert. She is owned by Baffert’s wife, Jill. She was favored in the Las Virgenes, but threw in a clunker, finishing eighth of nine.

◗ In her only start since then, she tried the grass for the first time and was fourth in the China Doll just two weeks ago.

◗ The best race of her career was a close third in the Grade 1 Starlet at Los Alamitos, but she has not reproduced that form in two subsequent starts.

Suva Harbor (Last 3 Beyers: 67-66-76)

◗ She crossed the wire first in the Island Fashion, the local prep for this race on Feb. 22, but was disqualified and placed last after bearing out on the first turn.

◗ That race did not flatter the locals, for Suva Harbor had been pummeled by Callback in the Las Virgenes in her prior start.

Rousanne (Last 3 Beyers: 62-50-53)

◗ She was the beneficiary of Suva Harbor’s disqualification in the Island Fashion. That was her first try around two turns following seven sprints, she was losing ground in the lane, and that career-best fig earned last time is unlikely to cut it against this field.

Scat Means Go (Last 3 Beyers: 56-51-62)

◗ She defeated maidens in her last start while racing greenly, so blinkers go on for this race. Her one-paced style gives her a chance to clunk up for a share in a race where many could find the distance beyond their range.