Linda's Gift tries for fourth stakes win this year in CTT-TOC

Linda’s Gift has amassed four stakes wins in marathon turf races for fillies and mares in California since November, a collection trainer Richard Mandella hopes will grow in the coming months in increasingly important races.

On Friday at Del Mar, Linda’s Gift will be favored to win her fourth stakes this year in the $100,000 CTT and TOC Stakes for fillies and mares at 1 3/8 miles on turf.

Success on Friday could lead to a start in the Grade 2 Rodeo Drive Stakes at 1 1/4 miles on turf on Oct. 5 at Santa Anita. The winner of the $200,000 Rodeo Drive Stakes receives a fees-paid berth to the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf on Nov. 2 at Del Mar.

“We liked to run in this and the Rodeo Drive and hopefully try for the Breeders’ Cup,” Mandella said. “That’s what we hope for.”

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Linda’s Gift, who races for the partnership of John Cronin, Anthony DiMarco, Michael Mandara, Fred Nicotra, and Vincent Varvaro, is part of a field of eight in the CTT-TOC Stakes, the seventh race on an eight-race program that begins at 3 p.m. Pacific.

Linda’s Gift has a predictable style of racing on or near the lead. She led throughout the Grade 3 Red Carpet Stakes at Del Mar last November and in the Astra Stakes at Santa Anita in January, and stalked the pace when she won two stakes at Santa Anita earlier this year – the Grade 3 Santa Ana Stakes in February and the Possibly Perfect Stakes in June.

A 5-year-old, Linda’s Gift worked six furlongs in a sharp 1:12.80 on Aug. 8 at Del Mar for Friday’s race.

“I think she’s ready,” Mandella said.

Linda’s Gift is one of four stakes winners in the field along with Duvet Day, Musical Rhapsody, and Sun Of Hill.

Sun Of Hill is one of three entrants trained by Phil D’Amato, along with Federalist Papers, who has not raced since last August, and Musical Rhapsody, a closer who won the Santa Barbara Stakes at 1 1/2 miles on turf at Santa Anita in May and was second in the Possibly Perfect.

Sun Of Hill, who was supplemented to the Breeders’ Cup program for $50,000 last month, is a 4-year-old Brazilian-bred filly who was fourth in her American debut in the restricted Osunitas Stakes at a mile on turf on July 21 at Del Mar.

D’Amato envisions Sun Of Hill taking a prominent position in the CTT-TOC field.

“I think this is a distance she likes more,” D’Amato said. “I think she’ll be more tactical. I think my filly will be sitting second or third.

“I think she will improve a lot. These South Americans need a race or two to get the rust off and acclimate to a different pace scenario.”

The CTT-TOC is the stakes debut for the improving filly Sunset Glory, who won an allowance race at 1 1/16 miles on turf at Del Mar by 3 1/4 lengths for her second consecutive victory. Trained by Michael McCarthy, Sunset Glory poses a major threat from off the pace.

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