Cassidy points Oscar Party, Yahilwa to Bayakoa

Oscar Party and Yahilwa are likely to give trainer Jim Cassidy two chances for a win in Saturday’s $200,000 Bayakoa Stakes for fillies and mares at Los Alamitos.

On Tuesday, Cassidy said the two stakes winners are expected to run in the Grade 2 Bayakoa at 1 1/16 miles. Oscar Party and Yahilwa are owned by Deron Pearson and ran in stakes in their last starts.

Oscar Party was a troubled fourth in the Kathryn Crosby Stakes on turf at Del Mar on Nov. 7, racing in traffic in the stretch and finishing 3 1/4 lengths behind Queen of The Sand. Oscar Party won the 2012 Kentucky Downs Juvenile Fillies Stakes before joining Cassidy’s stable a year later.

Yahilwa won the $200,000 Treasure Chest Stakes over a mile and 40 yards at Delta Downs on Nov. 22. Mike Smith was aboard for that win and has been booked to ride her in the Bayakoa, Cassidy said.

“I think I’ll run both of them,” Cassidy said. “I’m still playing with it. Yahilwa seems to be doing fine. I’m doing blood work on her [Tuesday], and if it comes back fine, I’ll run her.”

The Bayakoa field is expected to include Tiz Midnight, who was second in the Zenyatta Stakes at Santa Anita on Sept. 27 and sixth in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff there Oct. 31, and Valiant Emilia, the multiple stakes winner in Peru who was eighth in the BC Distaff.