Fast and dependable, Eda a short price in Desi Arnaz Stakes

With just one exception, the 2-year-old filly division in California wavers in perpetual transition. Here today, sidelined tomorrow.

Graded stakes winners Ain’t Easy, Grace Adler, and Elm Drive were injured or required time off. California-bred stakes winners At the Spa and Connie Swingle got sick or needed time. Last week’s impressive win by Big Switch in a Cal-bred stakes race hints at potential, but so far this year the division includes only one reliable constant.

Eda, trained by Bob Baffert, dodged the typical 2-year-old setbacks to make four starts over five months, including a Grade 2 runner-up finish and a listed stakes win. Saturday at Del Mar, front-runner Eda will be heavily backed in the $100,000 Desi Arnaz Stakes.

Only five entered the 6 1/2-furlong Desi Arnaz, and Eda is expected to start as the odds-on favorite over maiden stablemate Under the Stars, stakes-placed maiden Lady T, debut turf winner Tonito’s, and longshot Endless Thirst.

It is not a deep field. It never is. The Desi Arnaz, formerly run as the Moccasin Stakes at Hollywood Park, has been run six times since Del Mar’s first autumn meet in 2014. Average field size for the Desi Arnaz – 4.8 starters.

This year’s Desi Arnaz is light on numbers, and light on speed. Beyond her class advantage as the only stakes winner, Eda also is the only apparent front-runner. She is likely to win the Desi Arnaz by leading gate to wire under Flavien Prat.

Eda won her debut via disqualification at Santa Anita, and followed with a runner-up finish in the Grade 2 Sorrento at Del Mar. She subsequently got fried in a pace duel in the Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante, finishing fifth as the favorite, then scored a pace-pressing victory in the Anoakia Stakes at Santa Anita. The Munnings filly has won 2 of 4.

Although Baffert suggested after the Anoakia that Eda is a pure sprinter, the Desi Arnaz often leads to the Grade 1 Starlet at Los Alamitos, a mile and a sixteenth race scheduled for Dec. 4. Baffert won the Starlet in 2017 and 2018 with Desi Arnaz winners Chasing Yesterday and Dream Tree.

Baffert also entered blinkers-on Under the Stars in the Desi Arnaz. She finished third as the favorite in a maiden race two weeks ago. Under the Stars, by Pioneerof the Nile, is a sibling to Bodemeister, 2012 Kentucky Derby runner-up and Arkansas Derby winner.

It is not unusual for Baffert to start multiple runners in a single race, which he has done 73 times since opening day of the 2020-21 Santa Anita winter meet. Baffert won 43 of those races; his runners finished one-two 19 times, including in 10 stakes.

Lady T finished a closing second in both her starts, including the Anoakia. John Shirreffs trains the maiden late-runner. Tonito’s rallied from behind to win a turf sprint in her only start. Endless Thirst is likely to start as the longest shot in the five-runner field.