Ladies center stage in pair of stakes sprints

ARCADIA, Calif. – On dirt and turf, filly and mare sprinters command attention Sunday in a pair of Grade 3 stakes at Santa Anita.

Race 5 is the Las Flores, a six-furlong dirt raffle in which all seven entrants seek their first U.S. stakes win. Thermal may go favored off a runaway allowance win. She faces narrow allowance winner Magnificat. The Las Flores was postponed from Jan. 4 when racing was canceled.

Race 8 is the Las Cienegas, a 6 1/2-furlong hillside turf race that includes one of the country’s top female turf sprinters in Queen Maxima. A winner of her last six sprints against her own gender, she is sure to start favored over Nay V Belle and Spicybug.

Both stakes on Sunday have $100,000 purses, but the top race is the Las Cienegas on a hillside course that is practically home for Queen Maxima. Her three starts on the hill have produced two wins and a second. Queen Maxima is racing for the first time since October.

“There isn’t anything else for her,” trainer Jeff Mullins said, citing a scarcity of turf sprints for fillies and mares.

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Queen Maxima’s six-race streak in filly-mare turf sprints includes two Grade 3s last spring – the Monrovia on the Santa Anita hill and Unbridled Sidney at Churchill Downs. Except for two misfires in routes and a bad trip in a turf sprint against colts and geldings, Queen Maxima has fired every start. She enters her 5-year-old campaign having won seven races and $570,460 from 12 starts.

Queen Maxima has speed to establish position, and recent workouts under jockey Juan Hernandez indicate she is ready to fire. The knock is price. Queen Maxima’s odds could be short. Bettors looking for a legitimate contender at a higher price could do worse than Nay V Belle.

Mark Glatt trains Nay V Belle, who has improved on turf. Two starts back, racing five furlongs at Del Mar, Nay V Belle finished third in a stakes, less than two lengths behind Queen Maxima. Nay V Belle was blocked in the stretch, or she might have given Queen Maxima a battle.

Last out facing colts and geldings at Del Mar, Nay V Belle dropped too far off the pace and finished eighth racing five furlongs. Glatt looks forward to trying Nay V Belle at 6 1/2 furlongs on the hill.

“We got her on the turf, and obviously that worked out.” Glatt said. “I’m anxious to see her down the hillside course. It might be the perfect distance for her.”

Nay V Belle’s rider is Umberto Rispoli.

Spicybug is a presser dropping from the Grade 1 Matriarch at Del Mar. The Las Cienegas field also includes Egyptian Mau, Princesa Moche, Omnipontet, Miss Lizzy, Rosie Jeeks, and Antifona.

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Las Flores

Compared to the Las Cienegas on turf, the Las Flores on dirt is a scramble. It did not look that way when the Las Flores nominations were released. Tamara was expected to start as the odds-on favorite, but she was injured and has been retired.

The six-furlong Las Flores is led by Magnificat and Thermal, both up in class from entry-level allowance wins. Ooty, a Group 1 winner in Argentina, makes her first start in four months. Last-out maiden winner Margarita Girl is entered, along with comebacker Mawu, No Bad Beats, and Donttellourwives.

Magnificat finished second in her debut last summer, followed by maiden and allowance wins, both by a neck. Trainer Richard Mandella took a shot and entered Magnificat in the Grade 1 La Brea Stakes for 3-year-old fillies Dec. 28. She did not start.

“She tore her shoe off the morning of the race,” Mandella said. “I didn’t want to just put it right back on and go. [Her foot] was a little tender.”

It was a minor setback, and Magnificat quickly recovered. Mirco Demuro rides Magnificat, who had the rail when the Las Flores was first drawn. When the race was redrawn, Magnificat moved to post 5.

In her two wins, Magnificat earned back-to-back 84 Beyer Speed Figures.

“This filly’s kind of a sleeper. She just kind of does what she has to do,” Mandella said.

Thermal was a distance-challenged turf sprinter until trainer John Sadler moved her back to dirt Oct. 17 at Santa Anita. Thermal won by nearly four lengths with a 93 Beyer that tops the Las Flores field.

Where did that race come from?

“It was the switch back to dirt,” Sadler said. “All the time we ran her on the grass, it looked like the next time she’s going to [win], the next time, the next time. It was time to try her back on dirt, and she responded with a big win.”

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