Queen Maxima, Shuangxi give Mullins a 1-2 punch
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ARCADIA, Calif. – The improving turf filly Queen Maxima is moving up in class this winter, but it’s all downhill Thursday in the featured seventh race at Santa Anita.
A sprint for fillies and mares, the second-level hillside allowance is only a minor class challenge for Queen Maxima. If she reproduces the explosive rally she unleashed winning an entry-level allowance at six furlongs last out, Queen Maxima will be tough to beat at 6 1/2 furlongs.
Jeff Mullins trains late-runner Queen Maxima and front-runner Shuangxi, the leading contenders Thursday. Normandy Queen switches surfaces and shortens in distance as potential upsetter; Kitty Kitana has placed six times at the level. Royal Charter, Real Fire, and Egyptian Mau also entered.
Queen Maxima has two wins and two seconds from four turf sprints, none more impressive than her most recent start Dec. 29. Queen Maxima was stalled in traffic on the turn and faced a deficit of more than four lengths at the eighth pole. Then she lit the afterburners.
Queen Maxima angled out, lengthened stride, powered home, and won going away under Juan Hernandez. Visually, the win was more impressive than it looks on paper. It validated Mullins’s opinion of the 4-year-old filly.
“This one’s for real,” he said. It was only her fifth start.
A second-level allowance for Queen Maxima was scheduled three weeks later on Jan. 18.
“It was too close for her,” Mullins said.
Pass. But the allowance did not fill and was postponed to Thursday. That gave Mullins time to work Queen Maxima twice and put her back on the hill, where in fall she finished second in a stakes won by subsequent Grade 3 winner Toupie.
Mullins also starts Shuangxi, who made her comeback Nov. 3 at Del Mar. It was her first start for Mullins, first start in four months, and she was excessively keen.
“She was fresh and a little bit rank,” Mullins said, adding jockey Hector Berrios “had to fight her quite a bit, and just kind of fought the race out of her.”
Shuangxi pressed the pace and finished fourth.
Thursday on the hill, Shuangxi and Berrios are likely to set the pace, especially after a blazing half-mile workout Jan. 18 in 46.40 seconds. Shuangxi, 2 for 8, is the first racehorse owned by Utah resident Charles Henderson.
Normandy Queen followed her third-place sprint debut with a pair of front-running wins at a mile on dirt, but Santa Anita’s current leading trainer, Mark Glatt, was not convinced.
“Even though she won a couple at a mile, I don’t know if she really wants a mile,” he said. “She just barely held on both times. I’m thinking maybe down the hill will be the perfect distance, and there isn’t anything that says she won’t like the grass.”
Normandy Queen is by Omaha Beach; the filly’s second dam My Princess Jess was a three-time graded stakes winner on turf. Normandy Queen has not raced in four months, which is not a concern.
“She’s ready,” Glatt said.
Mike Smith rides Normandy Queen, who has speed to keep Shuangxi honest on the lead.
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