Rail draw complicates issue for heavily favored Sweet Azteca in Great Lady M.

If she picks up where she left off in 2025, the gray mare Sweet Azteca will score a resounding comeback victory Saturday in the Grade 2, $200,000 Great Lady M. Stakes at Los Alamitos and regain her status as one the country’s preeminent female sprinters.

It seems simple. However, her rail draw, 10-month layoff, and relatively short work tab provide fuel for skeptics. Is Sweet Azteca up to the challenge? Probably. Over the past two years, she has stamped herself one of the top female sprinters in California.

But for Sweet Azteca, a fleet-footed, tender-footed, Grade 1 winner with seven wins from nine starts, the challenge goes beyond her knack to reemerge at the top of her division. For Sweet Azteca, the tougher assignment is to stay there. Los Alamitos is always a good place to start.

Sweet Azteca has won the 6 1/2-furlong Great Lady M. the past two years in track-record time. She returns Saturday against a field that includes sharp speedster A. Z. Wildcat, Cal-bred multiple stakes winner Grand Slam Smile, and stakes winners Magnificat and Nooni. None are as fast as Sweet Azteca, whose objective is still four months away.

“My goal is not [the Great Lady M.],” trainer Richard Baltas acknowledged. “I’d like to get her to the Breeders’ Cup.”

Baltas could have added the word “again,” because Sweet Azteca nearly made it to the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint last fall at Del Mar. The 2-1 program favorite, she was a race day vet scratch due to recurring foot issues.

Baltas and owner-breeder Pam Ziebarth gave Sweet Azteca four months off and brought her back for a 6-year-old campaign geared toward the BC Filly and Mare Sprint on Oct. 31 at Keeneland. The Great Lady M. will be her first start in more than 10 months.

Although she won last year off a nine-month break, this year things are different. A year ago, Sweet Azteca was undeniably fit. She worked six times before a scheduled return June 1, was scratched with a superficial injury, posted three additional works, and defeated Grade 1 winner Kopion with a 102 Beyer Speed Figure. It was Sweet Azteca’s fourth triple-digit fig.

For this year’s comeback, Baltas is less bullish. “Why am I hesitant? Because I don’t know if she’s 100 percent fit. Last year she was dead fit. I don’t know if she’ll be short, or not.”

Sweet Azteca has worked just five times, but those include a smashing five-furlong drill last weekend in 59.40 seconds. She broke off behind a workmate and crushed that rival before galloping out far in front. Armando Ayuso worked Sweet Azteca and rides her Saturday.

Baltas was correct when he compared this year’s Great Lady M. field to last year, when Sweet Azteca upset odds-on Kopion. “It’s not as tough as it was last year,” Baltas said. “Last year was an extremely tough race.”

A. Z. Wildcat is a potential hindrance to rail-drawn Sweet Azteca; both have blazing speed. John Sadler trains A. Z. Wildcat, up in class after wiring an entry-level allowance. It was only her second start following a long layoff. Sadler and jockey Hector Berrios will let her rip.

“Right now, that’s the way she wants to run, showing a lot of speed,” Sadler said. “She’s very quick. Her last two works here [at Santa Anita] have been sensational.”

Hronis Racing owns A. Z. Wildcat, who has won 2 of 5, including her career debut at Los Alamitos in 2024. Drawn in post 4, outside the favorite, A. Z. Wildcat will keep Sweet Azteca honest.

If a pace duel unfolds, Grand Slam Smile might be the beneficiary. A 5-year-old mare trained by Sean McCarthy and owned by breeders Larry and Marianne Williams, Grand Slam Smile has won 12 races and $984,120 from 21 starts.

Grand Slam Smile is shortening from a turf-route stakes victory over Cal-bred fillies and mares, but sprinting on dirt at Los Alamitos is familiar ground.

“She ran a helluva race off a layoff over there last year,” McCarthy noted. “She likes the course, obviously, and she’s doing well.”

William Antongeorgi rides Grand Slam Smile, who is seeking her first graded victory.

Magnificat won the Desert Stormer Stakes on June 11 at Santa Anita, and would be wheeling back in 23 days for trainer Richard Mandella.

“It’s a little bit quick, I want to make sure that I’m happy with her,” Mandella said this week before committing to the race.

Magnificat has won 4 of 7 and will be ridden by Antonio Fresu.

Nooni scratched from the Desert Stormer due to a delay in processing bloodwork. Bob Baffert trains Nooni, who won the first two starts of her career in 2024 before she tailed off. The Great Lady M. will be the first start for Nooni since December 2024.

Prancingthruparis and A Thousand Miles also are entered in the Great Lady M., which has been won by favorites six of the last eight years. Sweet Azteca is expected to start at a short price Saturday, notwithstanding her post position and layoff.

The next stakes for filly-mare sprinters in California is the Grade 3, $100,000 Rancho Bernardo Stakes on Aug. 16 at Del Mar. Sweet Azteca won the Rancho Bernardo last year.