Chatalas lands front-running score in Chandelier

ARCADIA, Calif. – A lot can change when 2-year-olds stretch from a sprint to a route, for better or worse.

Chatalas relished the distance Saturday at Santa Anita, where jockey Antonio Fresu guided her to a front-running victory in the 1 1/16-miles Grade 2 Chandelier Stakes. The win erased the disappointment of her distant fourth-place finish in the seven-furlong Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante.

Laurent, however, regressed from her promising Debutante runner-up and finished last as the 2-1 Chandelier favorite.

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The win by Chatalas ($8.20) vindicated trainer Mark Glatt. He believed Chatalas would appreciate the softer pace of the two-turn Chandelier compared to the fast-pace Debutante where she chased, cracked, and lost by more than 12 lengths in her second career start.

“She had to rush up into 44-and-change, and that’s just not her,” Glatt said referring to the Debutante. “I’ve always liked her a lot, but the last time threw me a little bit of a curveball. Even though the winner was the winner, you still would’ve thought [Chatalas] could have run a little better.”

Glatt was referring to Tamara, runaway Debutante winner who sat out the Chandelier and will train into the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies. Chatalas will get a rematch with Tamara next month; she won a fees-paid Breeders’ Cup berth by winning the Chandelier.

Chatalas is owned by breeder Dan Agnew and Rancho Temescal and partners. The daughter of Gun Runner, who won her debut prior to finishing fourth in the Debutante, broke like a shot Saturday. Fresu allowed her to use her speed, and she did not have to use much.

Chatalas set easy fractions of :47.97 and 1:11.88 while Dua pressed from the outside. Dua was under a drive at the quarter pole, while Chatalas kept running and scored by 1 1/2 lengths over Scalabel. Dua finished third. The winner’s final time was 1:44.28.

Fresu said Chatalas was not getting tired at the finish of her initial route race. “I still had a lot of horse underneath me,” the rider said. “I liked the way she galloped out. I think she will stay all day long.”

Whether she has improved enough to give Tamara a test next month in the BC Juvenile Fillies remains to be seen, but Chatalas will enter with an attribute Tamara lacks – experience around two turns.

The disappointments in the Chandelier were 5-2 second choice Gate to Paradise, who finished fifth, and Laurent, the 2-1 favorite who finished last.

Laurent had finished a promising second in the Debutante, but did not repeat the effort in the two-turn Chandelier. “It was more than the trip today,” trainer Peter Eurton said. “She was done at the five-eighths pole. Something’s got to be amiss.”

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