Miss Guts makes local farewell

ARCADIA, Calif. - In the last six weeks, Miss Guts has gone from being the winner of a claiming race for maidens to the object of a private purchase.

Following her win in a $62,500 claiming race on March 29, her third consecutive win, Miss Guts was sold by a partnership to Lloyd DeBruckyer of Montana.

On Friday, she runs in a non-claiming race for the first time since September in a $53,000 optional claimer for 3-year-old fillies on the hillside turf course. She is scheduled to be shipped later this month to Prairie Meadows in Iowa, where DeBruckyer campaigns a stable.

"They gave me the option to run her once," said trainer John Sadler.

For trainer Barry Abrams, Miss Guts needed 10 starts to win her maiden. She followed that first win with an 11-length win on March 20 against $40,000 claimers. The March 29 race was her first start on turf.

Because of her busy schedule, Sadler feels Miss Guts can handle the two-week break since her last start.

"My thinking is Barry's horses go a lot and she's in good form," he said. "She looks bright. In her last start, she jumped the tracks and still won."

Miss Guts will be ridden by Victor Espinoza and has seven opponents, including Carinae, a disappointment in her first two U.S. starts; Caroline Island, who has been second in two starts this year; and Lady Katy Did, a maiden winner on the hillside course in February.

Carinae was stakes-placed in England last year and a troubled third in her U.S. debut on Feb. 1. In the La Habra Stakes on March 1, she was sent off as the favorite and was close early before fading through the final furlong to finish eighth.

Caroline Island was a maiden winner in England last year and has been close in two starts here, the most recent of which was a loss by 1 1/2 lengths on March 24 to the front-running E.C. Lady.

Others with a winning chance are Adoration, an eight-length maiden winner on Feb. 21, who was eighth in the Santa Anita Oaks on March 9; and Orlass, who encountered trouble in the Some Sensation Stakes on March 15.

Trained by Jim Cassidy, Orlass was sixth in the Some Sensation Stakes but promoted to fifth because of interference. She was stakes-placed in France last November in a sprint on turf.

The optional claimer is the fifth race on a nine-race program.

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