Retirement can wait for Spring Fever favorite Sunday Rules

ARCADIA, Calif. – Retirement has been postponed for Sunday Rules, the 6-year-old mare who is returning from an extended layoff Sunday at Santa Anita with lofty ambitions for 2017.

Sunday Rules won eight of her first nine starts, including four stakes, for her owner and breeder, Nick Alexander. But following two off-the-board finishes in 2016, Alexander and trainer Phil D’Amato wondered if the racemare was ready to become a broodmare.

“Nick was toying with the [decision] to breed her or run her,” D’Amato said. “Her little setbacks were so minor, and after a couple months at the farm, she looked so good that we decided to campaign her this year.”

Sunday Rules is likely to start favored Sunday in the $100,000 Spring Fever Handicap, a six-furlong sprint for California-bred fillies and mares that includes stakes winner Smoove It, comebacker Allsquare, front-runner Late ’n Left, Cuddle Alert, and Kiss At Midnight.

The 2017 Spring Fever is the third for Sunday Rules. She won the race in 2015 and finished last in July 2016 as the odds-on favorite. It was her most recent start and her second straight misfire, coming on the heels of a ninth-place finish in the Grade 1 Madison at Keeneland.

“That race at Keeneland just kind of zonked her out,” D’Amato said. “That race took its toll on her, and that’s when [Alexander] decided to kick her out and decide what to do with her.”

Sunday Rules responded to the freshening, and Alexander brought her back. The goal, Alexander told D’Amato, is ambitious.

“Let’s campaign her this year, and maybe with some luck, we can make her a millionaire,” Alexander told him.

That might be a reach, though Sunday Rules is more than halfway there. She has earned $541,840 and would top $600,000 by winning the Spring Fever under Tyler Baze.

“She’s training as good as ever; her last couple drills have been really nice,” D’Amato said. “She popped out of the gate like a lightning bolt the other day. She looked like she was going in 37.”

Sunday Rules’s time for the three-furlong gate work was 34.60 seconds.

D’Amato also starts Allsquare, a comebacker who might prefer two turns. “She’ll be at the other end of the spectrum; she will come running late,” D’Amato said.

With only one other front-runner in the field, Sunday Rules should get a great trip from the outside, pressing her pace rival Late ’n Left.

key CONTENDERS

Sunday Rules, by Tribal Rule

Last 3 Beyers: 75-79-95

◗ She is the leading female money earner sired by the late Tribal Rule and is fifth overall among his progeny.

Smoove It, by Square Eddie

Last 3 Beyers: 83-61-67

◗ She was off for eight months prior to her runner-up finish Jan. 28 in a turf stakes.

◗ Doug O’Neill trains the 6-year-old mare, whose five starts on dirt produced a second and a third.

◗ O’Neill and Smoove It’s jockey on Sunday, Mario Gutierrez, have teamed more often than any trainer-jockey combination at the winter meet – 32 starts together have produced 4 wins, 10 seconds, and 3 thirds.

Allsquare, by Square Eddie

Last 3 Beyers: 83-64-84

◗ Both of her wins were around two turns; she has one second-place finish from two sprints.