Heir Kitty fresh for Great Lady M.
CYPRESS, Calif. – When Heir Kitty finished fourth in the Grade 1 Madison Stakes at Keeneland in April, trainer Peter Miller knew she needed a rest.
"She was getting a little tired,” he said. “She got a little light.”
After a three-month break, Heir Kitty returns to racing in Saturday’s $200,000 Great Lady M. Stakes for fillies and mares over 6 1/2 furlongs at Los Alamitos. The Grade 2 Great Lady M., formerly run at Hollywood Park as the A Gleam Stakes, is the start of a summer and autumn campaign for Heir Kitty that Miller hopes will lead to a start in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint at Santa Anita later this year.
“She’s fit, and she runs well fresh,” Miller said. “She’s training really well.”
Owned by David Bernsen and Paul Makin, Heir Kitty will try to win the second stakes of her career in the Great Lady M. Last December, she won the Grade 1 La Brea Stakes for 3-year-old fillies over seven furlongs at Santa Anita at odds of 13-1.
Heir Kitty is winless in three starts this year, including a second to Judy the Beauty in the Grade 3 Las Flores Stakes at Santa Anita on March 9. In the Madison Stakes, Heir Kitty raced in traffic in the stretch of the seven-furlong race and finished 5 1/4 lengths behind Judy the Beauty.
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Miller said that with racing luck, Heir Kitty “could have run better.”
“I don’t think she beats the winner,” he added.
The Great Lady M. Stakes drew a field of seven and is the featured race on an eight-race program. Joe Talamo rides Heir Kitty from post 4. By Wildcat Heir, Heir Kitty is likely to get a stalking trip behind the quick Northern California invader Amaranth.
“We’ll let her settle where she is comfortable,” Miller said. “She’s best from just off the pace.”
DRF FORMULATOR FACT: No. 4 Heir Kitty. Trainer Peter Miller is 1 for 10 over the past five years with a $0.65 ROI moving horses from synthetic to dirt sprints after a layoff of between 61 and 180 days.Click for more details. – Mike Hogan
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Five in the field are stakes winners, including Amaranth, Concave, Doinghardtimeagain, and Sagebrush Queen.
Concave won the Grade 2 Sorrento Stakes at Del Mar last August. The Great Lady M. Stakes is her first start since December.
Sagebrush Queen won the Desert Stormer Stakes at Santa Anita in June, finishing ahead of Clearly Confused, a Great Lady M. entrant who has yet to win a stakes.
DRF FORMULATOR FACT: No. 6 Sagebrush Queen. Trainer Jorge Gutierrez is 5 for 21 with a $10.30 ROI over the past five years in dirt sprints with horses coming off a win.Click for more details. – Mike Hogan
Doinghardtimeagain drew the outside post. She won three consecutive stakes in the first half of 2013 but drifted out on the turn and finished last of five in this year’s Desert Stormer.
Tres Belle makes her 2014 stakes debut in the Great Lady M. Trained by Bob Baffert, Tres Belle won an allowance race and an optional claimer in consecutive starts at Churchill Downs in April and May.
Amaranth won her stakes debut in the Betamerica.com Oaks at the Oak Tree at Pleasanton meeting on June 22. Trained by O.J. Jauregui, Amaranth is unbeaten in three starts this year after losing all three of her races at 2 in 2013.
“I turned her out because she was very immature,” Jauregui said. “She wasn’t finishing.”
Jauregui said that Amaranth’s best asset is her speed.
“In every step of the race, she’s getting better and better,” he said. “She does it so easy, that’s the scary thing. She breaks, and she goes along.”