My Year Is a Day will take a chance in Megahertz Stakes

ARCADIA, Calif. – My Year Is a Day, a stakes winner in France in 2014, was held out of the $200,000 Monrovia Stakes on the hillside turf course at Santa Anita on Jan. 3 in favor of Monday’s $100,000 Megahertz Stakes.

While the Megahertz Stakes at a mile on turf has a distance with greater appeal to trainer Phil D’Amato than the 6 1/2 furlongs of the Monrovia, he admits the race is not necessarily an easier spot.

“I think it will be a salty race,” D’Amato said. “I’ve got to run my filly. I think a mile will be her up her alley.”

The Megahertz field is expected to include stakes winners Alexis Tangier, Circling, Gender Agenda, Stormy Lucy, and Theatre Star.

My Year Is a Day won a minor stakes at about a mile on turf at Craon, France, in her final start there in 2014. She was fifth in stakes at Churchill Downs and Monmouth Park for trainer Graham Motion last year before joining D’Amato’s stable last fall. In her California debut, My Year Is a Day was fourth in an optional claimer at five furlongs on turf at Del Mar in November.

“I would like to run her down the hill, but she acts like she has the stamina to go a mile,” D’Amato said.

While My Year Is a Day will be a longshot in the Megahertz Stakes, she comes from a stable that has already won two stakes at this meeting, which began on Dec. 26.

Owned by the Courtelis family’s Town and Country Racing, My Year Is a Day has won 3 of 10 starts and earned $100,525. She won the Criterium de l’Ouest at Craon on good-to-soft turf. Santa Anita’s turf course was rated as good on Thursday, its first day of use since Jan. 3. The course sustained approximately five inches of rain from Jan. 5-7 in the first major rainstorm of the season.

The Grade 3 Megahertz Stakes is the top race on Monday’s holiday program. Next week, there is racing from Friday through Sunday in a week highlighted by the $200,000 Santa Monica Stakes for fillies and mares at seven furlongs on dirt on Jan. 23. Prize Exhibit, who won the Grade 2 Monrovia Stakes on Jan. 3, is a candidate for the Grade 2 Santa Monica Stakes, trainer Jim Cassidy said on Friday.