Hollywood Park: Include Me Out fresh for Everett Handicap

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Include Me Out has compiled a perfect record around two turns this year, giving owner Samantha Siegel and trainer Ron Ellis the needed encouragement for Saturday’s $150,000 Marjorie Everett Handicap at Betfair Hollywood Park.

Wins in the Grade 2 La Canada Stakes for 4-year-old fillies over 1 1/16 miles in January and the Grade 1 Santa Margarita Invitational against older mares in March at Santa Anita have left Include Me Out with the role of leading older female in Southern California.

It is a position that Ellis said she is ready to defend in a strong running of the Everett.

“My filly is doing great,” Ellis said. “Both of her races were very good around two turns. Hopefully, she’s on the improve.

“I’m happy with our spot going into the summer. She’s had her races spaced and she should be really fresh.”

[bc_video_id:252133:]The Grade 2 Marjorie Everett Handicap, run over 1 1/16 miles for fillies and mares, honors the memory of the former chairwoman of Hollywood Park, who died earlier this year. The race was previously known as the Milady Handicap.

The Everett is the 10th race on an 11-race program that begins at 11 a.m. The day’s third race is the $100,000 Railbird Stakes for 3-year-old fillies over seven furlongs.

Include Me Out drew the rail in a field of seven that includes the multiple stakes winners Ellafitz and Zazu.

Ellafitz won three stakes from December to mid-February, notably the Grade 2 Santa Maria in February, before finishing last of four as the favorite in the Santa Margarita. Trained by Bob Baffert, Ellafitz is a stakes winner on Hollywood Park’s Cushion Track synthetic surface, in the Grade 2 Bayakoa Handicap last December.

Ellafitz has drawn the outside post and is expected to have the lead, which suits a stalker such as Include Me Out. If those two engage in a sort of a speed duel, the beneficiary could be Zazu, trained by John Sadler.

The winner of three graded stakes in 2011, Zazu has not started since winning the Grade 1 Lady’s Secret Stakes at Santa Anita last October.

An injured shoulder kept her out of the Breeders’ Cup last November, but did not require surgery.

The Everett is her first start in a campaign that Sadler and owners Jerry and Ann Moss hope will lead to the Breeders’ Cup at Santa Anita in November.

A win on Saturday against the two females who dominated the Santa Anita stakes will be tough, Sadler said.

“I know she’s doing great,” Sadler said of Zazu. “You hate to put her in that position in her first start back.”