Chancery Way will have company up front in Pleasanton Oaks

In her 14-race career, which includes four stakes wins and seven overall victories, Chancery Way is unbeaten in one aspect of her career – she has never lost on the California fair circuit.

Chancery Way has won three races in as many starts at fair meetings at Pleasanton and Sacramento since her career began in 2022. The streak is in jeopardy when Chancery Way starts in Saturday’s $75,000 Mary Clare Schmitt Pleasanton Oaks for fillies and mares at six furlongs at the Alameda County Fair.

Chancery Way, a game second in two stakes on turf at Santa Anita earlier this year, won her only previous start at Pleasanton, leading throughout a six-furlong allowance race in 2022.

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Winning the Pleasanton Oaks with the same style will be difficult.

The Pleasanton Oaks drew a field of six, many with as much speed as Chancery Way. Smiling Molly, an outsider who has yet to win a stakes, is capable of a sub-21-second opening quarter-mile. Pushiness, winner of the CTBA Stakes for 2-year-old statebred fillies at Del Mar last summer, has set the pace in her three starts. Tom’s Regret, who won the 2023 Pleasanton Oaks, has led early at times.

Pushiness is not a definite runner, trainer Michael McCarthy cautioned in a text message Thursday.

Chancery Way, who drew the inside, will be part of the pace, trainer Jamey Thomas said.

“I’ve got the rail,” he said Thursday. “I’ve got to go.

“It’s definitely going to be a tough race. The break will be a huge part of it.”

Owned by Andy and Rob Smolich, Chancery Way has not raced since she finished second by a half-length in the Irish O’Brien Stakes for California-bred fillies and mares on the hillside turf course at Santa Anita in March. Chancery Way set the pace in that race, but was caught when the field crossed from the hillside onto the main turf course.

Thomas said Chancery Way did not start in recent months to prepare for Saturday’s race and the Governor’s Cup Stakes for sprinters at Sacramento in July, a race she won last year.

Chancery Way has run well following a layoff in the recent past. She won the Betty Grable Stakes at Del Mar last November in her first start in more than two months.

“We’re hoping we can put it together and run good again,” Thomas said.

Pushiness, the lone 3-year-old in the field, won her first two starts last June and August before she finished seventh of 12 in the Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante last September. Pushiness set the pace to the turn of that seven-furlong race before fading through the stretch.

Trained by Michael McCarthy, Pushiness had one workout later in September before she was given a lengthy rest. Pushiness resumed workouts in early April and has had a steady pattern of works at Santa Anita in the last two months.

A rapid pace will suit the versatile filly Tom’s Regret. Trained by Steve Miyadi, Tom’s Regret won the 2023 Pleasanton Oaks by 4 1/2 lengths as the 4-5 favorite by stalking the early pace. A similar trip is possible Saturday.

The Pleasanton Oaks is the first of five stakes at the four-week meeting, which continues through July 7.

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