Debut winner Clearly Unhinged has questions to answer in Santa Anita Oaks
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ARCADIA, Calif. – Two months after an impressive maiden race win in her lone start, Clearly Unhinged runs in Saturday’s Grade 2 Santa Anita Oaks for 3-year-old fillies at 1 1/16 miles.
The $400,000 Santa Anita Oaks will be a learning experience for the filly and her intrigued trainer, Michael McCarthy.
Will Clearly Unhinged set the pace the way she did in the maiden race at 6 1/2 furlongs? Can she handle a two-turn race against more experienced fillies so early in her career?
“We’ll learn a lot,” McCarthy said on Sunday. “I’ve got a one-race sample. She’ll break and we’ll see where she places herself.
“The unknown for me is the mile and a sixteenth in her second start.”
Owned by Rock Brothers Racing of Steve Marshall and partners, Clearly Unhinged is part of a solid field of seven in the Santa Anita Oaks, California’s leading prep for the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs on May 5.
The leading candidates are Faiza and And Tell Me Nolies, the first two finishers of the Grade 3 Santa Ysabel Stakes at 1 1/16 miles on March 5. The other expected starters are Princess Bettina, the winner of the China Doll Stakes at a mile on turf on March 18, as well as the maiden race winners Cliquish, Venganza, and Window Shopping.
Clearly Unhinged, by Into Mischief, will be ridden by Juan Hernandez, the leading rider at the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting.
The Santa Anita Oaks is one of six stakes on Saturday’s program, which is led by the Grade 1 Runhappy Santa Anita Derby. There are two other stakes on the program, both on turf – the Grade 2 Charles Whittingham Stakes at 1 1/4 miles and the Grade 3 Monrovia Stakes for fillies and mares at about 6 1/2 furlongs on the hillside course.
– additional reporting by Brad Free
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