Crazy Beautiful likely to have smoother trip in Summertime Oaks

From start to finish, Crazy Beautiful had a troubled journey in the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs on April 30.

There is the strong likelihood of a less eventful trip in Sunday’s Grade 2 Summertime Oaks at Santa Anita.

The $200,000 Summertime Oaks, run at 1 1/16 miles for 3-year-old fillies, drew only seven nominations and may have four starters. The field is led by the unbeaten filly Soothsay, the winner of the Grade 2 Santa Anita Oaks on April 3 in her second start.

Crazy Beautiful, based in Kentucky with Ken McPeek, has far more experience than Soothsay. A winner of 3 of 8 starts, Crazy Beautiful will start in her eighth consecutive stakes in the Summertime Oaks.

In the Kentucky Oaks, Crazy Beautiful was jostled at the start and was seven wide entering the stretch before fading to finish 10th, 10 1/2 lengths behind Malathaat.

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“She came out of it kind of beat up,” McPeek said on Wednesday. “She got squeezed leaving there.”

Last Saturday, Crazy Beautiful breezed five furlongs in 59 seconds in company with stable star Swiss Skydiver, the champion 3-year-old filly of 2020.

“It was a good match,” McPeek said.

Crazy Beautiful, who will be ridden by Mike Smith, was sixth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Keeneland last November. Earlier this year, Crazy Beautiful was second in the Grade 2 Davona Dale Stakes at Gulfstream Park on Feb. 27 and won the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Oaks at 1 1/16 miles on March 27.

Swiss Skydiver won the Grade 1 Beholder Mile at Santa Anita in March and was third in the Apple Blossom Handicap at Oaklawn Park on April 17. McPeek said Swiss Skydiver will have her next race in the Grade 1 Ogden Phipps Stakes at Belmont Park on June 5.