S Y Sky due for a win in the California Distaff Handicap

ARCADIA, Calif. – The five-time stakes winner S Y Sky has never gone more than two starts without a win in her 15-race career, although once she was promoted from second to first to avoid a three-race slide.

At Del Mar during the summer, S Y Sky was second by three-quarters of a length in the Daisycutter Stakes on July 20 and in an allowance race with a $100,000 claiming option on Aug. 25.

S Y Sky finished well in both starts, leading trainer Phil D’Amato to believe the 5-year-old mare can win for the first time since May in Saturday’s $100,000 California Distaff Handicap for statebred fillies and mares at 5 1/2 furlongs on turf at Santa Anita.

The pressure will be on S Y Sky from the start. She drew the rail in a field of six. While S Y Sky has led throughout to win a stakes, she seems best suited to race as a stalker.

“She can come from out of it and she can be on it,” D’Amato said of the pace. “I don’t think it will hurt her with her style.”

S Y Sky’s biggest threats may be her stablemate Just Grazed Me, who was third in the Daisycutter and won an optional claimer on turf on Aug. 14, and Don’t Sell, the winner of the Unzip Me Stakes at 5 1/2 furlongs for trainer Doug O’Neill on Sept. 28.

S Y Sky and Just Grazed Me are owned by Nick Alexander, who bred both runners.

In the optional claimer, S Y Sky was second early to pacesetter Kentan Road. D’Amato thought Kentan Road would face pressure from a rival, who did not contest the pace.

“With a blink of an eye, she was gone,” D’Amato said of Kentan Road. “We were trying to play catch-up and could not get there in time.”

Just Grazed Me, who drew the outside post, raced as a stalker in her two starts at Del Mar, the only turf races of her eight-race career. Just Grazed Me won as the favorite on Aug. 14, beating a field that included the statebred stakes winner Gypsy Blu, who will start in the California Distaff.

“I think her race at Del Mar was ultra-impressive,” D’Amato said. “She opened up on them and was steadily hand ridden to the wire. She showed a nice turn of foot.”

Gypsy Blu won the Irish O’Brien Stakes on the hillside turf course here in March, finishing a half-length in front of S Y Sky. At Del Mar, Gypsy Blu was eighth in the Daisycutter and had a poor start when third to Just Grazed Me in an optional claimer at five furlongs.

“I think 5 1/2 furlongs will help her,” trainer Mark Glatt said. “The extra half-furlong could be a good distance for her. There is no margin for error for closers going five furlongs. When she was allowed to get out and had room, she was smoking.”