Lightmyfirebaby thrives on heavy workload

ARCADIA, Calif. - The $100,000 Valentine Dancer Handicap at Santa Anita on Sunday may be the middle leg of a stakes hat trick this spring for Lightmyfirebaby.

At least, that's the plan that trainer Barry Abrams has conceived.

Lightmyfirebaby won her stakes debut in the Irish O'Brien Stakes for statebred fillies and mares on the hillside turf course on March 17, rallying from fourth to win by three-quarters of a length. Abrams is hoping she can duplicate that form over a mile on turf in the Valentine Dancer, which was run in past years as the Pro or Con Handicap.

"She's an improving horse," Abrams said. "Between 6 1/2 furlongs and a mile, she's a good filly. I expect a good race from her."

If Lightmyfirebaby runs well on Sunday, she could make a quick turnaround in the $100,000 Las Cienegas Handicap on the hillside turf course on April 13, Abrams said.

Lightmyfirebaby is already making her sixth start of the meeting. She won a one-mile allowance race on turf against open company on Feb. 9, and was a troubled sixth in an optional claimer nine days later.

"She was blocked the whole stretch," Abrams said of the Feb. 18 race.

Owned by Richard O'Neill, Lightmyfirebaby was later fourth in a turf allowance race on March 10, a week before winning the Irish O'Brien.

"Her two mile races were pretty good," Abrams said.

Lightmyfirebaby is the 119-pound topweight in a field of nine statebred females. She is the only 2008 stakes winner in the field.

Swiss Current won the CTBA Marian Stakes at Fairplex Park last September, and has placed in three subsequent stakes. Trained by Doug O'Neill, Swiss Current is making her second start on turf, having finished fifth in an optional claimer at Del Mar last July.

Rockella won the Palo Alto Handicap at Bay Meadows last September, but was only fifth in the Irish O'Brien. She has been second in two stakes in the last six months - the California Cup Distance Handicap last November and the Wishing Well Handicap on the hillside turf course in February.

Bachelorette One was fourth in the Irish O'Brien, her first start since finishing second in the 2007 Irish O'Brien. Bachelorette One sustained a fractured cannon bone that required surgery to insert two stabilizing screws in the injured leg, trainer John Sadler said.

"It took a long time" for her to come back, Sadler said. "She's come back well."