Queen Maxima to face reduced field in Monrovia as Gratefully, Saratoga Special head to Keeneland

Queen Maxima, a five-time stakes winner in the last 14 months, will face a reduced field in Saturday’s Grade 3 Monrovia Stakes for fillies and mares at Santa Anita.

Two prominent 4-year-old fillies – Gratefully and Saratoga Special, first and second in the Wishing Well Stakes on Feb. 21 – are not part of a field of seven in the $100,000 Monrovia at about 6 1/2 furlongs on the hillside turf course.

Gratefully and Saratoga Special are scheduled to start in the Grade 2 Giant’s Causeway Stakes for fillies and mares at 5 1/2 furlongs at Keeneland on April 12, their trainers said recently. The Giant’s Causeway has a purse of $400,000.

Gratefully, trained by Robert Falcone, Jr., is unbeaten in five starts in New York and California. She won the Wishing Well Stakes by a head in her stakes debut.

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Saratoga Special, trained by Richard Baltas, had her first start in the United States in the Wishing Well Stakes. Last June, Saratoga Special was a minor stakes winner at Ayr Racecourse in Scotland in a five-furlong race for fillies and mares.

Baltas said the prize money difference between the two races was a factor along with owner Bing Bush’s desire to race at Keeneland. Bush heads the Abbondanza Racing partnership that co-owns Saratoga Special with TCC Stables.

“It’s way more money and the owner wants to go there,” Baltas said. “She been doing everything like a good horse does.”

Queen Maxima, trained by Jeff Mullins, won her lone start this year, in the Grade 3 Las Cienegas Stakes on the hillside turf course on Jan. 11. She won the Monrovia Stakes last April as part of a season in which she won 5 of 7 starts.

The Monrovia Stakes is the fifth and final stakes on a 12-race program that begins at noon, Pacific. The day is highlighted by the richest race of the meeting, the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby for 3-year-olds at 1 1/8 miles.

In the $500,000 Santa Anita Derby, Mullins starts Intrepido, the winner of the Grade 1 American Pharoah Stakes at Santa Anita last October. Queen Maxima and Intrepido are owned by Dutch Girl Holdings and Irving Ventures.

The other stakes on Saturday’s program are the Grade 2 Santa Anita Oaks for 3-year-old fillies at 1 1/16 miles, and two $125,0000 stakes for California-bred 3-year-olds at 6 1/2 furlongs – the Echo Eddie and the Evening Jewel for fillies.

Santa Anita has a four-day racing week from Thursday through Sunday to mark the end of the winter-spring meeting. The spring meeting runs from April 17 to June 14.

Sunday’s 10-race program begins at noon, Pacific. There will be mandatory payouts on Sunday in such jackpots bets as the early and late pick five, pick six, and super high five at Santa Anita as well as the Coast-to-Coast Pick five and Sunset Six that link races between Gulfstream Park and Santa Anita.

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