Pace could benefit Scratch It in Surfer Girl Stakes
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Weekend stakes options for the 2-year-old filly Scratch It focused on Saturday’s Miss Grillo Stakes at Aqueduct or Sunday’s Grade 3 Surfer Girl Stakes at Santa Anita.
The $100,000 Surfer Girl Stakes at a mile was selected, a chance for Scratch It to take a more prominent position in the nation’s juvenile filly turf division. With Scratch It based at Saratoga, it didn’t hurt that a recent flight to California was available from Newark, N.J.
“This gives her the best chance to win a stakes,” trainer Brad Cox said Friday.
Scratch It, part of an intriguing field of eight, is off to a fine start in her brief career after two appearances in turf races at 1 1/16 miles at Saratoga – a win in a maiden race from the front Aug. 1 and a second to Time to Dream after a stalking trip in the P.G. Johnson Stakes on Aug. 27.
“They were both good runs,” Cox said.
With an expected pace to follow in the Surfer Girl Stakes, notably from a sharp maiden race winner in Will Happen, Scratch It, who races for Fergus Galvin, Emily Magnier, and Linda Shanahan, may be dangerous in the stretch.
“We’re going into the race in good order,” Cox said. “She can take a step forward with her best race. It does look like there is some speed in there.”
Will Happen, trained by Richard Baltas, led throughout a five-furlong maiden race on turf in her debut Aug. 24 at Del Mar, drawing away to win by 4 1/2 lengths.
Juan Hernandez, the leading rider at the current Santa Anita autumn meeting through Thursday, has the mount for the first time on Will Happen on Sunday.
“I’m pretty confident that she’ll do it,” Baltas said of getting a longer distance of ground. “She seems to be doing everything right in the morning. She relaxes behind horses. She doesn’t seem speed crazy. I think we’ll be okay.”
Trainer Phil D’Amato has two starters in the Surfer Girl – Dreaming of Alys, a 61-1 winner of the $103,000 Del Mar Juvenile Fillies Turf at a mile on Sept. 6, and Yours Sincerely, who was fourth in that race as the 2-1 favorite.
The Surfer Girl field includes Pentle Bay, who closed well to be second in the Del Mar Juvenile Fillies Turf at 75-1 for trainer Simon Callaghan.
Yours Sincerely will be fitted with what D’Amato described as “a little cheater blinker” in the Surfer Girl.
“I want to get her more focused early,” he said. “I hope that does the trick.
“I think her style is come-from-behind. Maybe she should be a little sharper with the blinkers.”
Dreaming of Alys was tried on grass in the Del Mar Juvenile Fillies Turf after a poor result in the Grade 3 Sorrento Stakes on dirt Aug. 10, when she was last of six.
“I really liked her going into the Sorrento,” D’Amato said. “As soon as she got dirt in her face, she was climbing all over the place. The best way to eliminate her climbing with dirt on her face was to put her on grass.”
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