Illuminant's turn to shine in Gamely?

ARCADIA, Calif. – Perhaps it is Illuminant’s turn to win a major turf stakes for fillies and mares in Southern California in Monday’s $300,000 Gamely Stakes at Santa Anita.

Since Jan. 1, 2015, 17 different fillies or mares have won graded stakes around two turns on turf at Santa Anita and Del Mar. There have been no two-time winners during that span.

Illuminant has the credentials to win Monday’s Grade 1 Gamely Stakes, run at 1 1/8 miles on turf. Owned by Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and trained by Michael McCarthy, Illuminant was third to Tepin in the $350,000 Jenny Wiley Stakes at Keeneland on April 16 in her first start in a Grade 1 race.

“Anytime you can run third to a mare like Tepin, it’s a feather in her cap,” McCarthy said of Illuminant.

Tepin, the winner of the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Keeneland last October, was the champion grass female of 2015. She has won her last six races, including the Grade 2 Churchill Distaff Turf Mile on May 7, and is the future-book favorite for the Group 1 Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot in England on June 14.

Illuminant was 37-1 in the Jenny Wiley and will be a much shorter price in the Gamely Stakes. The competition is led by Wekeela, a stakes winner in France last year who was second in the Jenny Wiley in her American debut.

McCarthy knows Illuminant must be at her best to win on Monday. A 4-year-old, Illuminant has won 3 of 10 starts and earned $187,650. The Gamely will be Illuminant’s fourth try at winning a stakes.

“It will be really nice to win one,” he said. “This is a suitable spot for us leading into the summer.”