Hollywood Park: Miss Well Molded targets three in row

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Miss Well Molded was claimed for $32,000 by trainer Doug O’Neill when she won a one-mile turf race at Santa Anita on Oct. 10. The partnership that owns Miss Well Molded earned a rapid return of $37,440 when Miss Well Molded won an allowance race at Betfair Hollywood Park on Nov. 7.

Thursday at Hollywood Park, Miss Well Molded can win her third consecutive start in a $52,000 allowance over 1 1/16 miles on turf.

Miss Well Molded drew the outside in a field of eight. Jockey Edwin Maldonado will ride Miss Well Molded, replacing Rafael Bejarano, who is suspended through Friday for causing interference on Dec. 1.

“We go from a top rider to another,” O’Neill said.

At the start, Maldonado must decide whether to send Miss Well Molded to the front or stalk the pace. Miss Well Molded closed from fourth in a field of 11 to win the $32,000 claimer on Oct. 10. In her first start for O’Neill, Miss Well Molded led throughout.

“Whatever Edwin is comfortable with,” O’Neill said of race tactics. “We’ll leave it up to him.”

Miss Well Molded has won 4 of 15 starts and earned $180,156. The Oct. 10 race was the second time she had been offered for a claiming price, preceded by a fifth in a $45,000 claimer at Del Mar on Aug. 23.

O’Neill said he claimed Miss Well Molded “because of the Cal-bred angle. She had good consistent numbers. Like every claim you feel it, but you’re wrong a lot.”

Miss Well Molded is one of three fillies and mares in Thursday’s race who were winners in their last starts. Ricspretentiousgal won a $50,000 claimer on turf Nov. 10. Fanticola won an allowance race at Santa Anita on Oct. 24.

Ricspretentiousgal has won twice this year. In January, she clipped heels with a rival and fell in the stretch of a turf race at Santa Anita. Indecise, the 4-year-old filly who finished first in that race, was disqualified and placed seventh for shifting to the outside in the stretch. Trained by Richard Mandella, Indecise was sidelined after that race and returns to racing Thursday.

There will be support for Flashy Ways, a stakes winner in 2012 who was a troubled seventh in the Grade 3 Autumn Miss Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at Santa Anita on Oct. 26, her first start in more than six months.