Can't Sleep tries dirt for the first time
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Can’t Sleep could not wait for Del Mar for her second start of the year.
A 4-year-old filly, Can’t Sleep has been entered in an allowance race for California-bred fillies and mares at 5 1/2 furlongs at Los Alamitos on Sunday, an opportunity trainer Carla Gaines said was too appealing to pass up.
“She’s ready to run,” Gaines said. “I didn’t want to wait for the grass race at Del Mar.”
Los Alamitos began its three-week summer meeting on Friday. The Del Mar summer meeting starts July 18.
In Sunday’s race, Can’t Sleep will compete on dirt for the first time in her fourth start. Owned and bred by John Harris, Can’t Sleep has won 2 of 3 starts, with all of her races at 6 1/2 furlongs on the flat turf course at Santa Anita. Can’t Sleep won her debut in a maiden race in February 2024 and was third a month later in an allowance in her final start that year. She returned to win an allowance in January, her last race.
Gaines said on Friday she is not concerned about starting Can’t Sleep on a new surface.
“She’s been training very well on the dirt at Santa Anita,” said Gaines.
Can’t Sleep has had a series of quick workouts for her return, notably half-mile works in 47.80 seconds on May 24 and 47.40 on May 29, and five furlongs in 59.80 on June 5.
A start on dirt at Los Alamitos may be easier than a dirt race at another track, according to Gaines.
“I think that track is a little more forgiving to grass horses,” she said. “We’ll give it a whirl.”
Can’t Sleep is part of a field of 10 in the seventh race on an eight-race program that begins at 1 p.m. Pacific. Can’t Sleep drew the inside post and will be ridden for the first time by Antonio Fresu, the leading rider at the Santa Anita spring meeting that ended on June 15. Can’t Sleep was ridden in her last start by Juan Hernandez, who has the mount on the highly regarded Bit’s Tiger Magic on Sunday.
Bit’s Tiger Magic starts from an outside post in her first start on dirt since a second in a maiden race for statebred fillies and mares at six furlongs at Santa Anita in March 2024. Trained by Peter Miller, Bit’s Tiger Magic has won her last two starts in a maiden race at six furlongs on turf in April 2024 and an allowance race at about 6 1/2 furlongs on the hillside turf course on June 1. Those races were at Santa Anita.
Bit’s Tiger Magic is expected to lead. She could be joined near the front by the 3-year-old filly Fibonaccis Ride, winner of a five-furlong maiden race by six lengths at Los Alamitos last September.
Fibonaccis Ride was fourth in the Melair Stakes for 3-year-old statebred fillies at 1 1/16 miles at Santa Anita on May 24, leading to early stretch before fading from contention.
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