Delta Flower tries a distance in Summertime Oaks

ARCADIA, Calif. – Delta Flower has proven her ability in sprints in Arkansas and California this year. The question of how she can perform at 1 1/16 miles will be answered in Saturday’s $200,000 Summertime Oaks for 3-year-old fillies at Santa Anita.

Delta Flower has won her last three starts, including the Rainbow Miss Stakes over six furlongs for Arkansas-breds at Oaklawn Park on March 29 and her California debut in the Angels Flight Stakes over seven furlongs May 17.

FORMULATOR FACT: No. 4 Delta Flower (5-2 morning line). Trainer Jerry Hollendorfer is 9 for 34 (26 percent with a $3.02 ROI) over the past five years with horses on Santa Anita dirt going sprint to route in races with purses of at least $50,000. Click for more details.

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Trainer Jerry Hollendorfer said earlier this week that he expects the filly to be able to relax at longer distances and excel at two turns.

“We decided this would be the race to try her,” Hollendorfer said. “The way she trains, I don’t think she has to be on the lead. She doesn’t act like a speedball.”

The field for the Grade 2 Summertime Oaks, formerly known as the Hollywood Oaks, does not include a graded stakes winner.

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Among the West Coast’s top fillies, Grade 1 Hollywood Starlet winner Streaming recently returned to training. Fashion Plate, who won two Grade 1 races at Santa Anita earlier this year – the Las Virgenes Stakes and Santa Anita Oaks – is expected to make her next start Del Mar in the summer.[bc_video_id:327818:]

Hollendorfer has three of the runners in the Summertime Oaks, including Stop Smiling, who was third in the Grade 3 Sorrento Stakes at Del Mar last summer, and Fleet of Gold, who was seventh in an optional claimer on turf at Santa Anita on May 18.

Stop Smiling won an optional claimer on turf at Golden Gate Fields on May 11.

“We decided to send her to Santa Anita to see if she can compete with those bigger girls,” Hollendorfer said. “We think she has some ability.”

Fleet of Gold, who will be ridden by Alex Solis, was third in the Busanda Stakes at Aqueduct in January. The Summertime Oaks is her graded stakes debut.

“We want to try to get her [graded] stakes placed.” Hollendorfer said.

The competition includes two fillies trained by Bob Baffert and two by Eoin Harty. Baffert runs Jojo Warrior, who was third in the Miss Preakness Stakes in May, and Front Range, who makes her first start in a stakes in the Summertime Oaks.

Harty runs the maiden Live for Now and Arethusa, who won the Sharp Cat Stakes at Hollywood Park last November.

The other runner is La Mejor Fiesta, a stakes winner at Remington Park last December, who was seventh in the Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan Stakes at Pimlico on May 16.

Arethusa was sixth in the Black-Eyed Susan Stakes.

“She had a tough trip with a lot of trouble at the top of the stretch,” Harty said. “She’s a light filly, and the races take a toll on her.”

Earlier this year, Arethusa was third in the Las Virgenes Stakes and fifth in the Santa Anita Oaks. Harty expects improvement with age from Arethusa.

“The older she gets, the better she’ll be,” he said.

Quest for first stakes win

Home Run Kitten and Home School, first and second in an optional claimer May 18, each goes for his first stakes win in Saturday’s $75,000 Singletary Stakes for 3-year-olds over a mile on turf.

The Singletary is a prep for the $100,000 Oceanside Stakes over a mile on turf at Del Mar on July 17.

Home Run Kitten was second by a neck in the La Puente Stakes for 3-year-olds on turf in April. Trained by David Hofmans, Home Run Kitten will be ridden by leading rider Joe Talamo.

Home School, trained by Doug O’Neill, was third in the Desert Code Stakes on the hillside turf course May 3, finishing behind Forever Juanito, who starts in the Singletary.

The field also includes Aotearoa, who makes a relatively quick turnaround following a fifth-place finish in the Silky Sullivan Stakes for California-bred 3-year-olds on turf at Golden Gate Fields on June 8. Trained by Leonard Powell, Aotearoa won the Zuma Beach Stakes over a mile on turf here last October, but is winless in six subsequent starts, all stakes.