Desert Dawn points to Kentucky Oaks after Santa Anita Oaks upset

ARCADIA, Calif. – Desert Dawn will be prominent California trainer Phil D’Amato’s first starter in the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks on May 6 at Churchill Downs following the filly’s 14-1 upset win in Saturday’s Grade 2 Santa Anita Oaks.

Desert Dawn needed a win in the $400,000 Santa Anita Oaks at 1 1/16 miles to be considered for the $1.25 million Kentucky Oaks at 1 1/8 miles after losing her first starts in graded stakes.

“She was one of the fillies on the cusp of being there,” D’Amato said Sunday. “The way she galloped out, the longer the better for her.

“If she comes out of it well and trains well, we’ll take a shot.”

Owned by H & E Ranch, Desert Dawn won her first stakes in the Santa Anita Oaks. Last fall, she was sixth at 42-1 in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Del Mar. In her only previous start this year, Desert Dawn finished fourth of eight in the Grade 3 Santa Ysabel Stakes at 1 1/16 miles on March 6.

D’Amato said Desert Dawn will train at Santa Anita through April. Even with the win in the Santa Anita Oaks, Desert Dawn may be overlooked in a Kentucky Oaks, which will be led by such runners as Echo Zulu, the champion 2-year-old filly of 2021; Nest, winner of the Grade 1 Ashland Stakes at Keeneland last Friday; Adare Manor, who was second in the Santa Anita Oaks; Kathleen O., the undefeated winner of four races; and Secret Oath, who was third against males in the Arkansas Derby earlier this month.

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“We’ll go if she tells us she’s ready,” D’Amato said. “It will be a salty race.”

In the Santa Anita Oaks, Desert Dawn closed from third in a field of five under jockey Umberto Rispoli to edge Adare Manor by a neck. She paid $31.20.

D’Amato won two stakes on Saturday, including the Grade 2 Royal Heroine Stakes for fillies and mares at a mile on turf with the outstanding 4-year-old filly Going Global. The Royal Heroine was Going Global’s first start since December.

Going Global has won seven stakes since she arrived in California in the winter of 2020-21. She won the Grade 1 Del Mar Oaks last August and will have her next start in a race at that level in the $400,000 Gamely Stakes at 1 1/8 miles on turf for fillies and mares on May 30.

“The spacing is nice for a second race off the break,” D’Amato said.

Going Global was 3-10 against three rivals in the $196,000 Royal Heroine and won by a comfortable 1 3/4 lengths under Rispoli.

“It was the ideal first start off the bench,” D’Amato said. “It was kind of a work. She had to be asked from the quarter pole to the eighth pole, and Umberto let her cruise in.”

Going Global has won 8 of 13 starts and earned $769,292 for the partnership of Michael Dubb, Michael Nentwig, Saul Gevertz, Ray Pagano, and John Rochfort.