Paradise Woods heavily favored in Santa Maria Stakes

ARCADIA, Calif. – Although Paradise Woods finished third to two highly respected rivals in Secret Spice and Marley’s Freedom in the Grade 1 Beholder Mile at Santa Anita on March 30, the race represented a breakthrough from trainer John Shirreffs’s perspective.

“She was pressed, and she came back on,” Shirreffs recalled. “It was a big race for her.”

Paradise Woods was beaten 3 1/2 lengths by Secret Spice that day and followed up with an easy win in the Grade 2 Santa Margarita Stakes at 1 1/8 miles at Santa Anita on April 27. Five weeks later, Paradise Woods will start as a heavy favorite in Saturday’s Grade 2 Santa Maria Stakes at 1 1/16 miles for fillies and mares here.

“She’s coming into this race as well as her last race,” Shirreffs said.

Through the first half of the Santa Margarita, Paradise Woods was always within a half-length of pacesetter Just a Smidge while racing well off the rail. Paradise Woods took the lead on the turn and pulled away quickly to overwhelm the competition by 10 1/2 lengths.

Shirreffs envisions a similar performance from Paradise Woods on Saturday.

“If she relaxes a little bit and gets in her big stride, she should do well,” Shirreffs said. “We’re trying to put wins together.”

The field for the $200,000 Santa Maria is very similar to the Santa Margarita field. The second- through fourth-place finishers of the Santa Margarita – La Force, Exuberance, and Just a Smidge – are entered for the Santa Maria, along with Tapped, who placed in three stakes in 2016 and 2017.

KEY CONTENDERS

Paradise Woods, by Union Rags
Last 3 Beyers: 100-94-82

◗ The Santa Margarita Stakes was the first stakes win for Paradise Woods since the Grade 1 Zenyatta Stakes in September 2017, when she was trained by Richard Mandella. Paradise Woods joined Shirreffs’s stable in December and lost her first two starts with him – a fifth in the Grade 2 Santa Monica and the third in the Beholder Mile. Through that time, Shirreffs said he got to know Paradise Woods.

◗ Mike Smith rode Paradise Woods for the first time in the Santa Margarita and will ride her on Saturday.

◗ Owned by Steve Sarkowsky and Marty and Pam Wygod, Paradise Woods has won 4 of 14 starts and earned $945,890.

La Force, by Power
Last 3 Beyers: 85-82-92

◗ La Force has yet to win a stakes but has been second or third in five graded stakes since the start of 2018.

◗ Drayden Van Dyke has ridden La Force to four second-place finishes in stakes in the last year, including the Santa Margarita, and will be aboard again on Saturday.

◗ Van Dyke hopes he and La Force can take advantage if Paradise Woods doesn’t run back to her race in the Santa Margarita.

“If she runs back to that race, she’ll be hard to beat,” he said of Paradise Woods. “She doesn’t win a lot of races in a row.”

◗ The Santa Margarita was La Force’s first start since an eighth in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Churchill Downs last November. In the Santa Margarita, La Force closed from sixth to finish a clear second, and Van Dyke expects her to run the same way on Saturday.

“I’ll ride her the same,” he said.