Las Cienegas distance should suit Hear My Prayer

ARCADIA, Calif. – Hear My Prayer will start on the hillside turf course at Santa Anita for the first time in Sunday’s Grade 3 Las Cienegas Stakes for fillies and mares, which could be a custom-made race for her style.

Run at about 6 1/2 furlongs, the $100,000 Las Cienegas will be the first start for Hear My Prayer since she finished a troubled third in the Grade 3 Sen. Ken Maddy Stakes at five furlongs on turf on Nov. 5 at Del Mar.

“She was unlucky in her last race,” trainer Vladimir Cerin said Friday. “I want the luck to even out.”

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Owned by David and Holly Wilson, Hear My Prayer stumbled at the start and raced in traffic in early stretch of the Maddy Stakes. She closed quickly at the finish and was beaten three-quarters of a length, suggesting the longer distance of the Las Cienegas should suit her.

“She’s just a really good horse,” Cerin said.

Hear My Prayer won two stakes at five furlongs on turf at Gulfstream Park in 2020 and 2021 before joining Cerin’s stable last year. Hear My Prayer has set the pace at times, but is more likely to race as a stalker in a field of eight in the Las Cienegas.

The Las Cienegas is the first start in a graded turf sprint for Zero Tolerance, who has won three of her last four races. Zero Tolerance won the $82,000 Unzip Me Stakes for 3-year-old fillies on the hillside turf course in October. She was later fourth in the Grade 3 Autumn Miss Stakes at a mile on turf and rebounded to win a five-furlong allowance race on turf on Nov. 20 at Del Mar.

Trainer Ruben Alvarado said Zero Tolerance has changed for the better in recent weeks.

“I expect her to run big,” he said. “Every step she’s been doing is better, a little more power. She’s not the same horse as Del Mar. She’s more mature.”

The Las Cienegas is the California debut for Gold for Kitten, who was purchased for $350,000 at the Keeneland breeding stock sale in November. Now trained by John Sadler for West Point Thoroughbreds, Gold for Kitten has won 4 of 6 starts, but has yet to start in a turf sprint.

Last fall, Gold for Kitten was third in the Ontario Damsel Stakes on the synthetic track at Woodbine in her final start for trainer Brendan Walsh.

Sadler also starts Constantia, who won the Mizdirection Stakes at six furlongs on turf here last April but is winless in her last four starts. Constantia was sixth at 48-1 in the Grade 2 Goldikova Stakes at a mile on turf on Nov. 6 at Del Mar.

“She’s run all her good races at Santa Anita in turf sprints,” Sadler said.

The Las Cienegas will be the first start on turf for two 4-year-old fillies trained by Bob Baffert – Beautiful Gift and Ginja. Beautiful Gift has not started since she finished seventh as the 2-1 favorite in the Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan Stakes at Pimlico last May.