Miss Southern Miss starts season on dirt

ARCADIA, Calif. – Miss Southern Miss is getting another chance to prove that she can be effective on dirt in Sunday’s $200,000 Las Virgenes Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at Santa Anita.

Trainer Keith Desormeaux does not expect Miss Southern Miss to win the Grade 2 Las Virgenes Stakes against Unique Bella, the brilliant winner of the Grade 2 Santa Ynez Stakes at seven furlongs on Jan. 8. The one-mile Las Virgenes also includes Champagne Room, the champion 2-year-old filly of 2016.

Unique Bella is the one Desormeaux fears.

“If I can get within five lengths of Unique Bella, I think I can travel and win a stakes on the dirt, an Oaks somewhere,” Desormeaux said. “That Unique Bella is standout.”

Owned by Pete Cantrell, Miss Southern Miss has won 2 of 5 starts and earned $164,600. She won the Surfer Girl Stakes at a mile on turf here in October and was pre-entered for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf in November before she was sidelined with a sore shin, Desormeaux said.

“She had won a stakes for us the month before, so it’s hard to get down,” Desormeaux said. “If you have a physical problem, that’s the one you want. It’s totally healed.”

Last summer, Miss Southern Miss started four times on dirt, winning a maiden race and finishing second in two sprint stakes – the Landaluce Stakes here and the Grade 2 Sorrento at Del Mar. Along the way, Desormeaux repeatedly said Miss Southern Miss would be better in longer races, a point proven in the Surfer Girl Stakes.

The Las Virgenes Stakes will determine whether her next few starts are on turf or dirt.

“We haven’t tried two turns on the dirt,” Desormeaux said. “Hopefully, that’s what she likes.”