Jessamine winner California Angel switching back to dirt for Untapable Stakes
Already a graded stakes winner on turf, California Angel will conclude her 2-year-old campaign with a dirt start Dec. 26 in the $100,000 Untapable Stakes at Fair Grounds.
George Leonard III, who trains California Angel for Chris Walsh, said Tuesday that the filly would return to the main track in the Untapable, a route race new this season to the Fair Grounds stakes schedule. California Angel has worked twice, on Nov. 27 and Dec. 6, since arriving in New Orleans, where Leonard is stabling 14 horses for the Fair Grounds meet.
“Her works have gone very well, all according to plan,” Leonard said. “We’re just going day by day with her.”
California Angel, a daughter of California Chrome, fetched just $5,500 at auction and already has banked $213,000. She debuted in September with a smart one-mile maiden win in a rich Kentucky Downs race and in October captured the Grade 2 Jessamine Stakes over the Keeneland grass course. In the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf on Nov. 5, California Angel finished 11th but was beaten only four lengths after a predictably difficult trip from post 14.
“She stayed wide, got bumped three or four times, never could get comfortable around the racetrack. No luck,” Leonard said.
California Angel has started once on dirt, finishing third Sept. 30 in a Churchill allowance. That start came over a six-furlong trip too short for the filly, who rallied encouragingly to beat eight horses.
“I do think she can be as good on dirt,” said Leonard, who will find out more definitively later this month.