Monrovia Stakes could lure a dozen
As of Sunday, there were 12 probable starters for next Sunday’s Grade 2, $200,000 Monrovia Stakes for fillies and mares on the hillside turf course. The two Grade 2, $200,000 stakes on Saturday - the Santa Ynez Stakes for 3-year-old fillies over 6 1/2 furlongs, and the San Gabriel Stakes over 1 1/8 miles on turf - are expected to attract seven and eight runners, respectively.
Velvet Mesquite, the winner of the California Cup Distaff for statebred females in October, will make her seventh start on the hillside turf course in the Monrovia. Velvet Mesquite has won five races on the hillside course.
She will face a field expected to include Biorhythm, Fanticola, Gender Agenda, Heat Trap, Judy In Disguise, Llandudno, Sky Treasure, Stars Above Me, To My Valentine, Warm Breeze, and Wishing Gate.
Conquest Harlanate, a two-time stakes winner at Woodbine in September and October, is scheduled to run in the Santa Ynez. Trained by Mark Casse, Conquest Harlanate was 11th of 13 in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf here on Oct. 31.
Other probable starters for the Santa Ynez are Callback, Hennythelovepenny, Light the City, Rattataptap, Seduire, and Xoxo.
Tom’s Tribute, winner of the Grade 1 Eddie Read Stakes at Del Mar in July, will be favored in the San Gabriel against Avanzare, Big Bane Theory, Dynamic Sky, Edge of Reality, Finnegans Wake, Patrioticandproud, and Power Ped.