My Sweet Addiction gets class test in Desert Stormer

ARCADIA, Calif. – In her first three races, My Sweet Addiction has shown enough to justify a start in Sunday’s $75,000 Desert Stormer Stakes at Santa Anita. The six-furlong dash for fillies and mares could be the beginning of a summer of stakes appearances for the highly promising My Sweet Addiction.

Trained by Marty Jones for owner and breeder Pamela Ziebarth, My Sweet Addiction, 4, returned from a layoff of more than nine months to win an optional claimer over six furlongs here April 4.

Jones hoped to run My Sweet Addiction in an allowance race earlier this week but opted for the stakes when the other race did not draw sufficient entries.

“It’s the toughest race she’s run in,” Jones said. “She’s a really nice filly. She had some setbacks along the way. She had some things that made her need some time off.”

Mike Smith, who has been aboard My Sweet Addiction for all three of her starts, retains the mount. Smith is likely to have My Sweet Addiction near the front in the field of five. My Sweet Addiction drew post 4.

“She’s got a good post,” Jones said. “I don’t know if she needs the lead, but I think she’s happy on the lead.”

The Desert Stormer could be a preview of the $200,000 Great Lady M Stakes over 6 1/2 furlongs at Los Alamitos on July 12. The Great Lady M is a consideration for My Sweet Addiction, who is based at Los Alamitos.

“I think she’ll run farther,” Jones said Friday from Los Alamitos. “I wouldn’t mind running her here. She likes the track.”

In the Desert Stormer, My Sweet Addiction faces two stakes winners in Doinghardtimeagain and Warren’s Veneda, and two fillies who won their last starts in optional claimers – Clearly Confused and Sagebrush Queen.

Clearly Confused has won three consecutive starts, rising from a victory in a $16,000 claiming race in March to a win in an optional claimer over 6 1/2 furlongs on May 2. She was claimed for $25,000 from a win April 3 and made her first start for owner Niles Dickey and trainer Richard Baltas on May 2.

Sagebrush Queen has won two of her last three starts, including an optional claimer over six furlongs on May 30 for trainer Jorge Gutierrez.

Warren’s Veneda, trained by Craig Lewis, won the Cat’s Cradle Handicap for California-bred females last December but is winless in two starts this year – a third in the Spring Fever Stakes for Cal-breds on April 26 and a fourth in the Grade 3 Adoration Stakes over 1 1/16 miles on May 18.

The Desert Stormer will be the first start for Doinghardtimeagain since a ninth-place finish in the Grade 1 Del Mar Oaks last August.

“We thought she needed a freshening,” trainer Jerry Hollendorfer said.

Owned by Tommy Town Thoroughbreds, Doinghardtimeagain won the Grade 2 Hollywood Oaks last June and has four career stakes wins, two in sprints and two around two turns.

“She’s ready to go now,” Hollendorfer said. “I don’t know what her best distance is, but we want to get her started.”