Santa Anita: Awesome Baby stretches speed in Santa Ysabel
ARCADIA, Calif. – Awesome Baby can prove she is more than a sprinter with a win in Saturday’s $100,000 Santa Ysabel Stakes at Santa Anita.
Trained by Bob Baffert, Awesome Baby won her first stakes in the Grade 2 Santa Ynez over 6 1/2 furlongs on Jan. 4, leading throughout and holding off a late threat from Taste Like Candy by a half-length. The Santa Ynez was Awesome Baby’s first start since a fifth-place finish in the Grade 1 Chandelier Stakes over 1 1/16 miles for 2-year-old fillies here last September.
The Chandelier was five months ago, and Baffert said Awesome Baby deserves another try in a two-turn stakes. The Grade 3 Santa Ysabel Stakes is run over 1 1/16 miles for 3-year-old fillies.
“I thought I’d give her another chance going two turns,” Baffert said. “She’s speed.”
Awesome Baby, who races for Kaleem Shah, will be ridden by Mike Smith, who was aboard for the win in the Santa Ynez. Awesome Baby is part of a field of eight in the Santa Ysabel, a prep for the $400,000 Santa Anita Oaks on April 5.
Santa Anita officials changed the schedule of prep races for the Santa Anita Oaks this year, pushing the Santa Ysabel from its previous position in January to early March. The Grade 1 Las Virgenes Stakes had been run in early March, but was moved to Feb. 1.
The first four finishers of the Las Virgenes – Fashion Plate, Streaming, Arethusa, and Taste Like Candy – are not part of the Santa Ysabel field. Streaming has been taken out of training because of a knee injury.
Aside from Awesome Baby, there are two other stakes winners in the Santa Ysabel field, Be Proud and Swiss Lake Yodeler, and three stakes-placed fillies, Anniversary Kitty, Saintly Joan, and Tiz Kissable.
Be Proud, trained by Baffert, won the California Oaks at Golden Gate Fields on Feb. 8. Swiss Lake Yodeler won two stakes for California-bred 2-year-old fillies last fall, the Golden State Juvenile Fillies here over a mile Nov. 1 and the Soviet Problem Stakes over seven furlongs at Hollywood Park on Dec. 21.
Trained by Jerry Hollendorfer, Swiss Lake Yodeler was 11th of 14 as the 3-1 favorite in the California Cup Oaks on turf Jan. 25.
“Throw that out,” said Dan Ward, Hollendorfer’s assistant at Santa Anita. “She’s a good filly.”
Hollendorfer also starts Artemis, who was fifth in the Las Virgenes. Smith rode Artemis in the Las Virgenes, but Gary Stevens has the mount Saturday. Artemis will race with blinkers for the first time in the Santa Ysabel.
“We’ve breezed her in her last two works with blinkers,” Ward said. “It should help that the first four finishers of the Las Virgenes are not in the race.”
The Santa Ysabel will be the stakes debut of Sweet Bliss, a Street Cry filly trained by John Shirreffs. Sweet Bliss won her main-track debut in a maiden race over 1 1/16 miles on Jan. 30. She broke last in a field of five and closed well to win by a neck.