While the 145th Kentucky Derby on Saturday has the look of an entertaining ensemble piece with no single starring role, Friday’s running of the Kentucky Oaks comes across as a one-girl revue, with Bellafina ready to hog the spotlight. But don’t gild the lilies yet, warns Kaleem Shah, who owns the robust daughter of Quality Road. As the son of one of India’s most respected horsemen, Shah learned early that it’s wise to lower expectations even when the racing experts insist your horse is a lock. Bellafina is the 2-1 morning-line favorite among a field of 14 entered for the nine-furlong Oaks. “Let’s hope the experts are right,” Shah said earlier this week from his home in Virginia. “But I also realize it’s a very humbling sport, so I try not to get ahead of myself. Anything can happen when the gates open.” No argument there. But if there is a race that seems to have Shah’s name on it, just waiting to happen, the Oaks fits the bill. Since 2011, when May Day Rose raised hopes early in the season with a victory in the Santa Ysabel Stakes at Santa Anita, the owner has had a succession of sparkling fillies flying his American flag-inspired silks. Eden’s Moon, a daughter of Malibu Moon, won the Grade 1 Las Virgenes in March 2012 and was third in the Santa Anita Oaks. Awesome Baby, by Awesome Again, tore through the Santa Ynez, Santa Ysabel, and Sunland Park Oaks as an early 3-year-old of 2014. In 2016 it was Luminance, by Tale of the Cat, who finished second to Stellar Wind in the Santa Anita Oaks, while the following year American Gal, a Shah homebred by Concord Point, was the star of the show. Of those, however, only Eden’s Moon made it to the Kentucky Oaks, and she finished a hot and frustrated last of 14 behind Believe You Can, fighting the Churchill Downs surface every step of the way. “Bellafina is in a different league,” Shah said. Fair enough, but if there is a knock in the Bellafina profile, it would have to be her modest fourth-place finish to Jaywalk as the favorite in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Churchill Downs last November. Shah and his trainer, Simon Callaghan, ended up with an answer they could live with. “Unfortunately, she was in season at the time,” Shah said. “It was bad timing, certainly, but it is part of racing. So, you can draw a line through that race.” That leaves Bellafina with a nearly spotless record. She began her career on July 4 of last year at Los Alamitos with a second going five furlongs. Since then it has been an all-stakes diet, with wins in the Sorrento, Del Mar Debutante, and Chandelier preceding the Breeders’ Cup, then three straight this year in the SantaYnez, Las Virgenes, and Santa Anita Oaks. Flavien Prat, her only rider, is back aboard for the Kentucky Oaks. Shah, who founded the technology company CalNet, first teamed with Callaghan in July 2017, and soon after they won the Test at Saratoga with American Gal. Last year, on Derby Day, the filly added the Humana Distaff, and then, in November, American Gal sold for $3 million to Whisper Hill Farm. This season, Shah and Callaghan can boast a record of seven wins from just 17 starters. More importantly, their horses escaped serious injury during the siege of bad weather and sealed racetracks that confronted man and beast at Santa Anita this winter. “Horses train very hard,” Shah said. “Every horse is different, of course, but they all have in them a finite number of gallops, breezes, and races. At some point, you have to know when to say no. “Simon is a very cautious trainer, and his approach has paid dividends. He won’t work his horses on what he feels is a bad track. So far, we’ve avoided any catastrophic injuries, knock on wood. But we talk often, and he was keeping me posted on the good, the bad, and the ugly.” Ugly, as in 21 horses suffering catastrophic injuries at Santa Anita in training and racing, both on dirt and turf, between late December and early March. “I understand the concerns of a group like PETA,” Shah said, referring to the subsequent outcry. “It’s so unfortunate what happened, and I hope and pray we don’t lose another one. I spoke to Santa Anita management about the situation, and I believe they have taken some corrective measures to assure that the health of these horses should be paramount. Time will tell.” Horses have been coming out of the rotten West Coast winter to win races at steady clip far and wide, including the Grade 1 Madison win by Spiced Perfection, the New Orleans Handicap score by Core Beliefs, and the Arkansas 3-year-old domination by Omaha Beach. But if Bellafina is to join the fun, she will need to deal with a field nearly three times the size of the five-, five- and four-horse races she handled in California. “You’ve got to respect them all when they get to a race like the Kentucky Oaks,” Shah said. “I know she will run her race. All you can hope for is a clean trip. If she gets one, I’m looking forward to a red, white, and blue letter day.”