Decked Out seeks to put icing on cake for Desormeaux in Senorita
ARCADIA, Calif. – When Decked Out starts in the $100,000 Senorita Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at Santa Anita on Saturday, the Kentucky Derby will be a few hours old. By then, the afternoon may be an historic one for trainer Keith Desormeaux.
Desormeaux starts leading contender Exaggerator in the Kentucky Derby, seeking his first win in the race. Exaggerator ran the best race of his career to win the Santa Anita Derby on April 9. Earlier that day, Decked Out had a career-best performance when she won the Grade 3 Providencia Stakes for 3-year-old fillies on turf.
Decked Out, who races for Gene Voss and Big Chief Racing, will be favored in the Grade 3 Senorita Stakes at a mile on turf. The race drew a field of nine, including four other stakes winners – Kiss N Scat, Mirage, Stays in Vegas, and Swift Lady.
The Senorita Stakes is the ninth race on an 11-race program that begins at noon Pacific.
◗ Smokey Image, the California-bred champion 2-year-old male of 2015 who was unsuccessful in Triple Crown preps this year, will start on turf for the first time in the $75,000 Desert Code Stakes for 3-year-olds on the hillside turf course.
Trained by Carla Gaines, Smokey Image was seventh behind Exaggerator in the Santa Anita Derby. Smokey Image has won five stakes, including four sprints. In the Desert Code Stakes, Smokey Image has four rivals, and three of them have run in claiming races. The exception is Tristan’s Trilogy, who beat maidens on the hillside turf course in his eighth start April 2.
Senorita, Race 9
KEY CONTENDERS
Decked Out, by Street Boss
Last 3 Beyers: 89-81-79
◗ Desormeaux said after the Providencia that a switch to turf has changed Decked Out. She has run three times on turf, finishing third to Swift Lady in the Sweet Life Stakes on the hillside course in February and fifth behind Mirage in the China Doll Stakes at a mile in March.
“I wish I could say that I’ve done something different with her, but really, it’s just been the switch to turf that’s turned her around,” he said after the Providencia.
◗ Keith’s brother, Kent, has ridden Decked Out in her turf races but is riding Exaggerator on Saturday. Edwin Maldonado will ride Decked Out.
Kiss N Scat, by Scat Daddy
Last 3 Beyers: 72-74-83
◗ Kiss N Scat and Stays in Vegas are trained by Jerry Hollendorfer. The Providencia will be the first start for Stays in Vegas since a second in the Grade 1 Starlet Stakes at Los Alamitos last December. She won the Surfer Girl Stakes on turf here last October.
◗ Kiss N Scat won the California Oaks on the Tapeta synthetic surface at Golden Gate Fields in February but was ninth in the China Doll and eighth in the Providencia.
◗ Kiss N Scat is arguably better than her last race indicates, considering that she raced in traffic on the backstretch and in the stretch, losing all chance.
Mirage, by Oasis Dream
Last 3 Beyers: 76-84-76
◗ Mirage, purchased for approximately $592,000 at auction in London last June, won the China Doll as a 27-1 outsider. She had a troubled trip when sixth behind Decked Out in the Providencia Stakes.