Room Service comes west for American Oaks

ARCADIA, Calif. – When Room Service takes a liking to a surface, the results have been brilliant for the 3-year-old filly.

Room Service thrived on turf at Gulfstream Park in March, winning the Grade 3 Herecomesthebride Stakes. She took a fancy to Keeneland’s Polytrack surface in early April, winning the Grade 1 Ashland Stakes in a dead heat with Rosalind.

Saturday, Room Service makes her California debut in the $350,000 American Oaks for 3-year-old fillies over 1 1/4 miles on turf at Santa Anita. A successful race could lead to a return engagement later this year for the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf.

Room Service is trained by Wayne Catalano for owners and breeders Gary and Mary West. By More Than Ready, Room Service has been given time to acclimate to Santa Anita. She worked seven furlongs in 1:31.20 on turf last Sunday.

“The grass is good for her,” Catalano said. “She handled the Polytrack well enough to try and it worked out well for us.”

Catalano said Room Service was considered for the Kentucky Oaks on dirt on May 2, but the plan was abandoned when she did not train on the Churchill Downs dirt track to his liking. On May 6, she breezed five furlongs on turf at Churchill Downs, which clinched plans for her next start.

“She didn’t handle the dirt as well,” he said. “When we worked her back on the grass, she was like a different horse.”

Shaun Bridgmohan will ride Room Service in the Grade 1 American Oaks, a race formerly run at Hollywood Park, which closed last December for development.

The American Oaks field is led by Nashoba’s Gold, Sweet Bliss, and Diversy Harbor, the first three finishers of the Grade 2 Honeymoon Stakes on May 4. Nashoba’s Gold, a winner of 3 of 4 starts, will be favored in the American Oaks.

The projected field has another shipper in Little Journey, who was third in the Edgewood Stakes on turf at Churchill Downs on May 2 in her American debut for trainer Chad Brown.