Off first stakes win, Paradise Lake being considered for Santa Ana

ARCADIA, Calif. – It has taken time, but the 5-year-old mare Paradise Lake has amassed a tidy collection of wins in the last eight months.

After winning allowance races at Santa Anita last May and October, Paradise Lake won her first stakes in Thursday’s Grade 3 Robert Frankel for fillies and mares at 1 1/8 miles on turf. Paradise Lake stalked pacesetter Starry Night to early stretch and was challenged in the final sixteenth by that rival before winning by a nose.

“She is kind of special,” trainer Peter Eurton said in the winner’s circle. “She is no bigger than a greyhound, but she has put on some weight.”

Eurton said he does not weigh his horses, but horses are weighed when they arrive at the Santa Anita receiving barn before a race.

“I think it was about 950” pounds, Eurton said on Friday. “She’s always been a light filly."

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Owned by Lee and Susan Searing’s C R K Stable, Paradise Lake has won 4 of 11 starts in a career that began in 2024. She had four starts that year and six in 2025, the last of which was a good third in the Grade 3 Red Carpet Stakes for fillies and mares at 1 3/8 miles on turf at Del Mar on Nov. 23.

In the $101,500 Frankel Stakes, named in honor of the late Hall of Fame trainer, Paradise Lake paid $9 as the second choice in a field of eight.

“She probably did not run her best race,” Eurton said. “She had a touch of anxiety in the paddock.”

Paradise Lake will be considered for the Grade 3 Santa Ana Stakes for fillies and mares at 1 1/4 miles on turf at Santa Anita on March 15.

While Thursday’s program was only the fourth day of racing at the current Santa Anita meeting, which was plagued by wet weather during the holiday period, Eurton has already won two stakes. He won the Grade 2 Joe Hernandez Stakes on Dec. 29 with Gas Me Up.

“It’s been a great meeting – two wins and two stakes wins,” Eurton said. “How can you beat that?”

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