Faiza notches fourth consecutive win with Santa Ysabel Stakes
ARCADIA, Calif. – The 3-year-old filly Faiza stretched her unbeaten streak to four on Sunday at Santa Anita, and this victory was different. For the first time in a stakes, Faiza did not cut it close. Instead, she actually won clear.
Faiza won the Grade 3 Santa Ysabel Stakes by 2 1/4 lengths, the biggest stakes margin of her career after gutting out the Grade 1 Starlet by a head as the odds-on favorite at Los Alamitos, and the Grade 3 Las Virgenes by a half-length as the even-money favorite at Santa Anita.
“She’s not going to win by a lot,” trainer Bob Baffert said. “Whoever rides her, they always come back and say ‘there’s so much more there’.”
Flavien Prat rode Faiza ($3.60) Sunday. She pressed the pace from second, kicked away late, and won the 1 1/16-mile race in 1:44.66. Sired by Girvin, Faiza is owned by Michael Lund Peterson and is likely headed to the Grade 2 Santa Anita Oaks on April 8. In that race, she will meet a rival who is sure to improve.
And Tell Me Nolies finished second in the Santa Ysabel, the first start in four months for last year’s top juvenile filly in California. She won the Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante and Grade 2 Chandelier Stakes at Santa Anita, and Sunday she was making her first start since she finished eighth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies. Trainer Peter Miller was thrilled with her comeback.
“She exceeded my expectations,” Miller said. “We were a couple works short; she hung in there to the last sixteenth. She ran great, and the winner is a good filly.”
Blessed Touch set the pace and tired to third, followed by Justique and Pride of the Nile. Spanning the Globe scratched.
Coffee in Bed, the highly regarded debut winner who would have been among the Santa Ysabel favorites, did not enter. Her trainer, Richard Mandella, said she tied up (stomach cramps) early this week. Coffee in Bed, by Curlin, is among the top 3-year-old filly prospects in California.
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