Plan is for Dani Reese to move late

ARCADIA, Calif. - Perhaps one day Dani Reese will succeed in a stakes. For now, trainer Dan Hendricks is reverting to an optional claimer at Santa Anita on Thursday to boost her record.

A 4-year-old filly owned by a partnership, Dani Reese has won 3 of 5 starts, with the wins coming in a maiden race and two allowance races. She was fifth in the Fleet Treat Stakes at Del Mar last summer and last of 11 in the Grade 1 La Brea Stakes here last month in her other two starts.

The approach to Thursday's race over about 6 1/2 furlongs on the hillside turf course is to use Dani Reese's late kick. She was effective using that style in a six-furlong allowance race on the main track under jockey Mike Smith here in October but did not fare very well racing closer to the front in the early stages of the La Brea.

"The only thing I can say is that her best race was when Mike Smith took her back," Hendricks said, adding that her run in the La Brea was "the opposite of the way she wanted to run."

Alex Solis, who was aboard for two of Dani Reese's victories at Hollywood Park last summer, regains the mount.

Trying Dani Reese on turf is something of an unknown, but the surface could be changed to the main track if rain expected Tuesday and Wednesday is severe.

"She's got a little turf pedigree," Hendricks said. "We thought it might work on turf. We'll have her back and make a run like she did the last time she won."

There are 10 fillies and mares in Thursday's third race, including the last three finishers of the La Brea - Minute Limit, Alice's Smart, and Dani Reese. Only Flashover, who is entered to be claimed for $62,500, has won on the hillside turf course, most recently in an allowance race last March. She has since placed in two stakes on the surface - the California Cup Distaff and California Sky Stakes, both last October.

Unzip Me will be a threat from the rail. Trained by Marty Jones, who has won with five of his first 11 starters at the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting, Unzip Me was a four-length winner of an allowance race over six furlongs on turf at Hollywood Park on Dec. 20.