Paradise Woods to face small field in Santa Maria Stakes

ARCADIA, Calif. – Paradise Woods will be a massive favorite to win Saturday’s Grade 2 Santa Maria Stakes for fillies and mares at Santa Anita against a familiar field.

Trained by John Shirreffs, Paradise Woods won the Grade 2 Santa Margarita Stakes at 1 1/8 miles by 10 1/2 lengths on April 27 for her first win since September 2017. In the $200,000 Santa Maria, at 1 1/16 miles, Paradise Woods will face the second- through fourth-place finishers from the Santa Margarita – La Force, Exuberance, and Just a Smidge.

The Santa Maria drew only five runners. Tapped, second in an optional claimer on turf April 14, is part of the field in what will be her first stakes appearance since October 2017. Trained by Richard Baltas, Tapped was sidelined through 2018 because of minor injuries.

Tapped was second in three turf stakes in 2016 and 2017. The Santa Maria will be her first start on dirt since a fourth in the Grade 1 Ashland Stakes at Keeneland in April 2017. Tapped won a maiden special weight race on dirt in 2016.

“She can run on both surfaces,” Baltas said.

The Santa Maria is the richest race on Saturday’s nine-race program. In the preceding race, the stakes winners Hostess, Maxim Rate, and Sold It are part of a field of eight in the Grade 3 Honeymoon Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at 1 1/8 miles on turf.