Clenor tries hillside course in Ultrafleet Stakes

ARCADIA, Calif. – Stakes winners Clenor, On the Backstreets, and Sushi Empire meet in Friday’s $75,000 Ultrafleet Stakes for 3-year-old fillies on the hillside turf course at Santa Anita. All three can rebound after losing their last starts.

Clenor won the Oak Tree Juvenile Fillies Turf at Del Mar last September and the Surfer Girl Stakes here last October. Trained by Doug O’Neill, Clenor has not raced since finishing a troubled fifth as the 4-5 favorite in the Grade 3 Miesque Stakes at Hollywood Park last November.

The Ultrafleet will be the first start on the hillside turf course for Clenor, who races as a closer.

On the Backstreets, who is most effective as a stalker, won the Sweet Life Stakes on the hillside in her turf-stakes debut in February but has lost her last two starts – a fourth as the favorite in the China Doll Stakes over a mile on turf here in March and a seventh as a 39-1 longshot in the Grade 1 Ashland Stakes on the Polytrack synthetic surface at Keeneland on April 5.

Sushi Empire also is a closer. She won the Blue Norther Stakes on turf here Jan. 1 but is winless in her last three starts, including a second in an optional claimer on the hillside turf course March 29. Sushi Empire broke slowly in that race but closed well to finish a half-length behind Saintly Joan, who scored a 25-1 upset.

Saintly Joan, trained by John O’Hara, is part of the Ultrafleet field.

La Sorella, a maiden race winner on the hillside March 22, and Belle of the Fleet, third behind Saintly Joan on March 29, are likely to set the pace.

The Ultrafleet is the fourth race on a nine-race program that begins at 12:30 p.m. Pacific.