Return of fast-working maiden Honor It opens Friday card

ARCADIA, Calif. – A quiet week at Santa Anita begins with an unassuming nine-race Friday program that includes five maiden races.

Among the races likely to attract the most attention is race 1, a turf sprint in which a well-bred maiden makes her comeback. The most probable winner Friday runs in a claiming sprint, race 8, while an entry-level allowance for 3-year-olds on turf goes as race 9 with a stakes-placed dropper the one to beat.

A simulcast of the Kentucky Oaks from Churchill Downs is being shown between races 4 and 5 at Santa Anita. By then, Honor It will be cooling out after her maiden-race comeback, which kicks off the Friday card.

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The five-furlong turf sprint represents a do-over for Honor It, a Tapit filly produced by stakes winner With Honors. Favored in her debut last summer at Del Mar, she broke slowly, failed to produce speed and finished a distant sixth. Then, she disappeared.

Richard Mandella trains Honor It, whose five-furlong gate work last week suggests she is ready to rip. She worked inside two rivals, “won” the workout by open lengths, and earned the bullet designation for the day’s fastest five-furlong drill – 59.60 seconds.

Honor It’s second dam is the 2006 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies winner Dreaming of Anna. The main rival for Honor It is Annie’s Song, an eight-start maiden with seven in-the-money finishes. Honor It, if she runs to her work, should be gone. The past two years, Mandella is 6 for 10 with favorites in maiden turf sprints.

The most probable winner Friday might be claiming veteran Claim of Passion in race 8. He shortens from a route to a sprint, and moves from synthetic to dirt first start off the claim by trainer Steve Miyadi. Claim of Passion, arguably the best horse in the field, faces 8-year-old Black Storm, a seven-time winner at Santa Anita.

Handy Dandy runs in the featured ninth race Friday, an allowance for 3-year-olds at a mile and one-eighth on turf. Handy Dandy finished in the money in three turf stakes this meet for trainer Ruben Alvarado, including a head loss last out while finishing third.

But the likely favorite faces a formidable rival. Beef Winslow stretched out from a series of sprints last time and dominated a mile maiden turf race by five lengths while running his final quarter-mile in a solid 23.11 seconds. Beef Winslow is trained by Doug O’Neill.

Others in the field include last-out runner-up Echosmith, comebacker Red Road, and European import Nero Tulip. The nine-furlong turf allowance is likely to produce starters for the $100,000 Cinema Stakes for turf 3-year-olds at the same distance on June 4.