Kathleen Rose skips Goldikova, targets Kathryn Crosby for first stakes win

ARCADIA, Calif. – Two near misses in stakes at Santa Anita and Del Mar by Kathleen Rose this year made it easy for trainer Mike Machowsky to pick an early-November race.

While Sunday’s $200,000 Goldikova Stakes over a mile on turf at Santa Anita had appeal, the $75,000 Kathryn Crosby Stakes over a mile on turf at Del Mar next Friday has been chosen for Kathleen Rose’s next start.

“We were thinking of the Goldikova, but looking at the noms, we thought it would be more important to get a stakes win for her,” Machowsky said.

With that decision, Kathleen Rose could become the first stakes winner of Del Mar’s new autumn meeting. The season begins Friday and runs 15 racing days through Nov. 30. The dates were previously held at Hollywood Park, which closed last December.

The autumn meeting will include two $300,000, Grade 1 races previously run at Hollywood Park – the Hollywood Derby on Nov. 29 and the Matriarch Stakes on Nov. 30. The first graded stakes of the meeting is the $100,000 Bob Hope Stakes for 2-year-olds over seven furlongs, a race previously run at Hollywood Park as the Prevue Stakes.

Racing will be conducted Friday through Sunday on opening week and Thursday through Sunday for the remaining three weeks of the month.

Kathleen Rose, a 4-year-old filly by Good Journey, has won 5 of 12 starts and earned $309,520 for Bruce and Beverly Zeitz. Earlier this year, Kathleen Rose was second by a neck in two stakes at Santa Anita – the Grade 2 Royal Heroine Stakes in June and the Swingtime Stakes on Oct. 4.

The top race for Nov. 8 is the $75,000 Let It Ride Stakes for 3-year-olds over a mile on turf, which could produce a few runners for the Hollywood Derby. The featured race Nov. 9 is the $100,000 Betty Grable Stakes for California-bred fillies and mares over seven furlongs, a race previously run at Hollywood Park as the Cat’s Cradle Handicap.

Fallon in California for winter

Kieren Fallon, the former champion jockey in England, will ride the Del Mar meeting for the first time this year.

Fallon, 49, announced in October that he planned to relocate to Southern California this winter. He arrived last week and won with his first mount, Notorious ($97.20), for Hall of Fame trainer Jerry Hollendorfer in Wednesday’s eighth race for 2-year-old maidens.

He described the win as an “unbelievable” start to riding in California.

In the past, Fallon has ridden Breeders’ Cup races at Santa Anita, and he participated in an international jockey challenge here in 1999. Riding in England, he said, has lost some of its appeal, leading to the change.

“I spend five or six hours a day in the car getting to the races, and it’s no fun,” he said.

On Sunday at Santa Anita, Fallon has one mount on the 10-race program – Our Love Affair in the second race. In past years, Fallon has spent winters in Dubai before returning to England for the start of the turf flat season in March.

“I’d like to come here and stay,” he said.

Rhagori to be sold after Goldikova

Sunday’s Goldikova Stakes may be the final start in California for Rhagori, who is scheduled to sell Thursday as a racing or broodmare prospect at Keeneland.

The timing is somewhat of a disappointment for trainer Simon Callaghan. Rhagori won her first stakes Oct. 4 in the restricted Swingtime Stakes. He expected her to be further along in her career by now.

“I thought she’d be a graded stakes filly,” Callaghan said. “She hasn’t done as well as we thought.”

At the same time, Callaghan argues that Rhagori can play a role in the Goldikova Stakes against a field of nine that includes four fillies and mares from other circuits and one filly from England.

“It’s a pretty salty race,” Callaghan said. “She’s training as good as ever coming out of her last race.”

First post for Sunday’s 10-race program, the closing day of the autumn meeting, is noon.