Queen Maxima may get a break before next start after Las Cienegas win

ARCADIA, Calif. – Hardly a day goes by without someone asking Jeff Mullins about Queen Maxima.

Such conversations are commonplace for the trainer of a star mare who has compiled five stakes wins in turf sprints at Churchill Downs, Del Mar, and Santa Anita in the last year. The most recent came in Sunday’s Grade 3 Las Cienegas Stakes on the hillside turf course at Santa Anita.

“Anybody who is involved in this game needs to experience a horse like this,” Mullins said in the winner’s circle. “This is something else, I mean this is a once-in-a-lifetime horse.”

Queen Maxima won the $102,000 Las Cienegas by a deceptive half-length. She tracked pacesetter Princesa Moche until the field crossed from the hillside portion of the course to the main oval before taking the lead. Ridden by Juan Hernandez, Queen Maxima needed minimal coaxing to reach the front.

“Juan said, ‘When I crossed the dirt, I had [Princesa Moche,]’ ” Mullins said after leaving the winner’s circle.

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Owned by Ruben Islas and Michele Arthur, who races as Dutch Girl Holdings and Irving Ventures, Queen Maxima has won 8 of 13 starts and earned $630,460.

A Florida-bred by Bucchero, Queen Maxima has won at distances ranging from five furlongs to about 6 1/2 furlongs, all on turf.

Queen Maxima could have a gap between starts, if Mullins opts to keep her in turf sprints. The next possible race for Queen Maxima in that division at Santa Anita is the Grade 3 Monrovia Stakes on the hillside turf course on April 4, a race she won last year.

“We’ll see how she comes out of it,” Mullins said on Sunday. “I think she’s a little better with time between races. Sometimes, that’s by design and sometimes it’s not by design.”

Another long-term option is the Grade 3 Unbridled Sidney Stakes for fillies and mares at 5 1/2 furlongs at Churchill Downs in May. Queen Maxima won the 2025 Unbridled Sidney in a then-course record time of 1:01.29.

Nobals, the winner of the 2023 Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint at Santa Anita, lowered the record to 1:00.29 later in May with a win in an allowance race.

Prior to Queen Maxima’s win, Mullins had a disastrous day when Damazio sustained a fatal injury on the turn of a $10,000 claimer at a mile. Jockey Adrian Escobedo did not ride for the remainder of the program, or at Los Alamitos on Sunday evening.

Queen Maxima gave Mullins his first stakes win since Man O Rose won The Chosen Vron Stakes for California-bred sprinters at Del Mar on Nov. 8.

Man O Rose is one of five statebreds entered in Saturday’s $125,000 California Cup Sprint at six furlongs at Santa Anita. Man O Rose has won three consecutive stakes for statebreds since mid-September at Los Alamitos.

Man O Rose’s main rivals in the Cal Cup Sprint are Speedy Wilson, who was third in the Grade 1 Malibu Stakes at seven furlongs for 3-year-olds at Santa Anita on Dec. 28, and Big City Lights, who won the 2025 Cal Cup Sprint, but is winless in his last two starts. Big City Lights was eighth in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Del Mar on Nov. 1.

There are five stakes for California-breds on Saturday’s program at Santa Anita, the richest day of the year in California for statebreds.

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