Ms Peintour returns to action in Astra Stakes

The 2020 season began with such promise for Ms Peintour, who won the Grade 3 Astra Stakes last January for the first stakes win of her career.

A splint bone injury, the absence of turf marathons for fillies and mares, and an apparent dislike for the Del Mar turf course contributed to Ms Peintour having one additional start last year – a last-place finish in the CTT and TOC Handicap at Del Mar in August.

Ms Peintour starts in Sunday’s $100,000 Astra Stakes at 1 1/2 miles for fillies and mares on turf at Santa Anita with something to prove, trainer Brian Koriner said Friday.

“She’s as solid as she was before,” Korriner said. “Can she get a mile and a half off a layoff? This is the first time we’ve found something long. She did not like the track at Del Mar.”

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Ms Peintour will be ridden by Flavien Prat, a replacement for Brice Blanc, who has yet to return to riding after a summertime injury at Del Mar. Ms Peintour is likely to stalk the pace.

“If she can hang around and lope along and give her turn of foot on the turn, they’ll have a hard time catching her,” Koriner said.

Ms Peintour, who races for Samantha Siegel’s Jay Em Ess Stable, has an advantage over her eight rivals in that she has won a stakes at the distance. Hermaphrodite, a maiden race winner at 1 1/2 miles in France in 2018, is the only other runner in the Astra with experience in a race of that length.

Hermaphrodite was second or third in four stakes at 1 1/2 miles to 1 9/16 miles in France in 2018 and 2019. Hermaphrodite closed with interest to finish fifth in an allowance race at 1 1/8 miles on turf Dec. 26 in her second race following a 15-month layoff that ended in November.

“She’s really a specialist,” trainer John Sadler said of Hermaphrodite’s ability at a distance.

Avenue de France won the race Dec. 26 and will have her stakes debut in the Astra. Trained by Leonard Powell, Avenue de France is a threat from off the pace.

The Astra is the first distance race on turf for fillies and mares in Southern California since the Grade 3 Red Carpet Handicap at 1 3/8 miles on Nov. 26 at Del Mar. Quick, third by 1 1/2 lengths in the Red Carpet, is one of two mares from that race in the Astra along with sixth-place finisher Aunt Lubie.

Quick, trained by Sadler, closed well to be closest at the finish despite bumping with a rival in the final furlong.

“She had a chance to be second,” Sadler said. “I don’t think she has distance limitations.”