Divine Legacy comes from fast family

SAN MATEO, Calif. - Trainer Bill Currin has a soft spot for Divine Legacy, who is seeking her first stakes victory in Saturday's $75,000 Bay Meadows Oaks, a 1 1/16-mile race on the dirt main track.

"She's a special filly," said Currin "She comes from a family of runners."

A daughter of Full Mandate out of Caught Ree, Divine Legacy is a half-sister to the Currin-trained Bashert, runner-up in the Grade 2 Best Pal and Grade 3 Hollywood Juvenile as a 2-year-old and ready to return to training as a 5-year-old. Her other four siblings to race are all winners, three of them multiple winners, including Legacy's Honor, who has eight wins and $113,896 in earnings. Currin bought Divine Legacy for $170,000 as a weanling at Keeneland in November 2005.

Divine Legacy won a maiden race in January and then ran fourth in a pair of Grade 1 races at Santa Anita, the Feb. 9 Las Virgenes and the March 8 Santa Anita Oaks. Currin sent Divine Legacy north in hopes of earning a stakes victory.

"She's the kind of filly you can travel with," Currin said. "We're going to come up and see what we've really got."

Divine Legacy has five rivals, three locally based and two shippers. Snake Proof brings in the best credentials, with a pair of wins and pair of seconds at Sunland Park. She won her debut there and then the El Paso Times Handicap. She ran second in the $200,000 WinStar Oaks in her last start on March 16.

Seattle Smooth was fifth behind Divine Legacy in the Santa Anita Oaks after losing by a neck to Sky Mystic in the California Oaks at Golden Gate Fields.

Christmas Ship and Ice Lady, second and third in the Corte Madera at a mile at Golden Gate last December, and Naturally Perfect are the Northern California entrants.

Divine Legacy has never been close to the early lead, and that could be a problem because the Bay Meadows track has been playing to speed.

Divine Legacy should have enough pace to run at, with Ice Lady and Snake Proof both capable of showing speed. Ice Lady comes off a wire-to-wire allowance win, and Snake Proof sat perhaps too close to a sizzling 44.94-second opening half in the 1 1/16-mile WinStar Oaks.