ARCADIA, Calif. – A jumbled cast of fillies and mares will try to fill a vacancy at the top of the female dirt division Sunday at Santa Anita. The Grade 2 Zenyatta Stakes looked like a layup for Adare Manor, but she retired this week. While none of the six remaining entrants are as accomplished, the defection of the division leader creates an ideal opportunity for a handful currently under the radar. Those include Flying Connection, a multiple stakes winner and Grade 1-placed 4-year-old trained by Todd Fincher. If she wins the Zenyatta, Flying Connection can aim higher Nov. 2 at Del Mar. “We’re always shooting for the moon,” Fincher said. “Hopefully she can win [the Zenyatta] and get some of her fees paid for the Breeders’ Cup [Distaff]. The Breeders’ Cup is the ultimate goal.” Flying Connection is no moon shot on Sunday. A troubled third behind Adare Manor last out in the Grade 1 Clement L. Hirsch at Del Mar, Flying Connection could start favored against a muddled Zenyatta field that includes one who already qualified for the BC Distaff. :: Bet the races with a $200 First Deposit Match + FREE All Access PPs! Join DRF Bets. Che Evasora, a Win and You’re In winner this spring in Argentina, makes her U.S. debut. A long-distance specialist, Che Evasora is up against it racing a mile and a sixteenth in the Zenyatta, as trainer Phil D’Amato acknowledged. “She acts like a filly that wants to run all day. Those are the races she proved best in in South America, going a mile and an eighth, a mile and a quarter,” D’Amato said. “This should be a good prep for her, come running late and hopefully have her tuned up and ready to go for the Breeders’ Cup.” D’Amato also starts durable Arizona-bred Desert Dawn, a Grade 2-winning million-dollar earner nearing the end of her career. Alpha Bella will make her California debut with strong dirt works for new trainer John Sadler. The others are Grade 2 winners Sugar Fish and Nothing Like You. Flying Connection is the horse to beat in the historically predictable Zenyatta. Favorites have won 17 of 31 editions, including 13 at odds-on. Flying Connection’s price will be higher. Her credentials are solid. Flying Connection, 7 for 17, ranks slightly below the division leaders and higher than most others. She has earned $993,300 and this spring placed in two Grade 1 races – a second in the Apple Blossom at Oaklawn Park and a third in the Derby City Distaff at Churchill Downs. “She’s got a huge heart, that filly,” Fincher said. “She always gives you everything she’s got.” Though she finished a distant third last out at Del Mar, Flying Connection ran well. She ran straight into a traffic jam that stalled her momentum at the top of the stretch, then regained stride and held off fourth-place Desert Dawn. Flying Connection has worked well since, including a 59.60 five-furlong drill last weekend over a Santa Anita track that produced slow work times leading to the start of the fall meet. Joe Talamo rides Flying Connection. Alpha Bella looms the upsetter. Previously trained by Todd Pletcher and a Grade 3 winner on turf, Alpha Bella was sent to Sadler this summer. Based on her dirt works, the change in scenery helped. “She had an off race her last race in New York, but we like the way she’s training on dirt,” Sadler said. “We think she’s going to run well.” Alpha Bella, a 3-for-16 filly by Justify, will be ridden by Hector Berrios. Her only dirt win from three starts was a two-horse allowance in 2023. Desert Dawn, a 5-year-old, is nearing the end of her racing career and likely to improve from her recent Del Mar comeback. “She’s going to get back to the track where she had her best triumph,” D’Amato said, referring to her 2022 Santa Anita Oaks upset over Adare Manor. D’Amato said a top-three finish “the right way” will put Desert Dawn in the BC Distaff, after which she will become a broodmare. Umberto Rispoli rides Desert Dawn. Che Evasora only needs to finish well to go in the BC Distaff, because she is already in. D’Amato said Che Evasora “needs to get more acclimated to this style of racing and sharpen up a little bit, and then on to the next.” Antonio Fresu rides. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.