Lacie Girl a perfect fit

ALBANY, Calif. - Lacie Girl, unbeaten in four northern California starts, may be the one to beat in Saturday's $60,000-added Orinda Handicap at Golden Gate Fields.

Five other older fillies and mares will challenge her in the six-furlong race. Onslaught, Fertile, and Bullish Miss were the first three finishers in the Nov. 10 Camilla Urso. Broke in Blairsden and Our Here Tiz round out the field.

Onslaught, Fertile, Bullish Miss, and Broke in Blairsden signed up twice to run in the six-furlong Moment to Buy Handicap, which was postponed on Dec. 21 and canceled a week later when they were the only four to enter.

"You just have to go along until something comes up if you don't want to ship," said Jerry Hollendorfer, who trains Bullish Miss in addition to Lacie Girl.

While the Moment to Buy saga dragged on, Lacie Girl was preparing for the Grade 1 La Brea at Santa Anita. She finished sixth in that race after being part of an early pace duel.

"She's doing all right," Hollendorfer said. "This race is available, and we wanted to keep her sprinting."

Since returning to her home base, Lacie Girl has worked three times, including a bullet 1:12 for six furlongs on Jan. 17.

Lacie Girl won three sprints, then made her stakes debut in the 1 1/16-mile Star Ball Handicap here on Nov. 30. Although she had shown speed sprinting, Lacie Girl sat well off a brisk pace that day and closed strongly to win by a nose.

The ability to rate could be a crucial factor because Onslaught, Fertile, and Bullish Miss all possess good speed and have an affinity for the front.

Of those three, only Onslaught has raced since the Camilla Urso. She ran in the Grade 3 Monrovia Handicap at Santa Anita on Dec. 31, setting the pace in the 6 1/2-furlong turf race before fading badly in the stretch.

She battled head and head with Fertile in the Camilla Urso, pulling in front late to win by a half-length.

Broke in Blairsden, who won two straight sprints upon her arrival in northern California last fall, was a troubled third in the Jan. 5 Work the Crowd at one mile here.

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