O'Neill targets stakes with Comical, Lazy Daisy

Trainer Doug O’Neill will have starters in important stakes for juvenile fillies at Churchill Downs and Santa Anita this weekend and later this month.

Comical, who finished third in the Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante on Aug. 31, will start in the Grade 1 Chandelier Stakes for 2-year-old fillies at 1 1/16 miles on Sept. 27 at Santa Anita.

The winner of the Grade 3 Schuylerville Stakes in July at Saratoga, Comical was sixth in the Grade 2 Sorrento Stakes on Aug. 3 at Del Mar. Comical closed from last of eight in the Del Mar Debutante at seven furlongs to finish 9 1/4 lengths behind impressive winner Bast, but only a half-length behind runner-up Inspiressa.

“I thought she rebounded and showed her class coming on,” O’Neill said. “She was way farther back than we imagined.”

The O’Neill-trained Lazy Daisy, who was fourth in the Del Mar Debutante, will be pointed to the Grade 2 Pocahontas Stakes at 1 1/16 miles on Saturday at Churchill Downs.

The Chandelier and Pocahontas stakes each offers a fees-paid berth to the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies on Nov. 1 at Santa Anita.