Ladies get break from Unzip Me

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - No one with a female turf sprinter in Southern California seems to mind that Unzip Me, winner of three sprint stakes in the division, will miss Friday's $60,000 Culver City Stakes at Hollywood Park.

Even Unzip Me's trainer, Marty Jones, sees the Culver City as a chance for his Dotsy Jean to get away from Unzip Me, if only for one race. Dotsy Jean was fourth behind Unzip Me in the Great Lady M Stakes here May 21 and finished behind her in the Irish O'Brien Stakes at Santa Anita in March.

The Culver City is restricted to fillies and mares that have not won a stakes worth $60,000 to the winner this year. Unzip Me did that twice, in the Irish O'Brien and Las Cienegas Stakes in April.

In the Great Lady M Stakes, Dotsy Jean was second to Unzip Me for the first half-mile and missed second by a neck and a head.

"She only got beat a length and a half," Jones said. "She runs pretty good on this grass. She seems to take to it. She tried hard."

Dotsy Jean has won 9 of 30 starts and $270,463. She has won 2 of 5 starts this year, an optional claimer over six furlongs on the synthetic main track Jan. 7 and an allowance race on turf here May 1.

The Culver City drew a field of seven and is the seventh race on an eight-race program that begins at 7:05 p.m. Pacific. Dotsy Jean has drawn the outside post.

"She can run on the lead or off of it," Jones said of Dotsy Jean.

Either way, Dotsy Jean must hold off late threats from Minute Limit and Porto Marmay, who finished second and third in the Great Lady M.

Porto Marmay has won two sprint stakes on turf in the last year. Minute Limit earned the first stakes placing of her career in the Great Lady M. A 4-year-old Irish-bred, Minute Limit has won 3 of 12 starts in England and the United States.

"She gets away from Unzip Me, who has beaten her twice," trainer John Sadler said.

"She doesn't have to come from that far back. This race is a good fit."

Bonifacio, who is making her stakes debut, could lead from the rail post.