Santa Anita: Bejarano continues hot hand aboard Lady Ten in Autumn Miss

ARCADIA, Calif. - Lady Ten won Saturday’s $100,000 Autumn Miss Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at Santa Anita, giving jockey Rafael Bejarano his seventh stakes win of the autumn meeting.

The feature race next Saturday – the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic - is the one that Bejarano covets.

“I’m pretty excited for next week,” he said of the whole Breeders’ Cup. “We expect to have a good week.”

Bejarano rode Lady Ten for trainer Bob Baffert, who will start projected favorite Game On Dude in the BC Classic. Bejarano has the mount on Game On Dude.

Lady Ten has been a productive member of Baffert’s stable in her own right this year. Owned by Mercedes Stable, Lady Ten has won two stakes in 2012, starting with the Sandy Blue Handicap at Del Mar in August.

She was second in the Swingtime Stakes here last month, a loss that was a strong enough performance to make her the favorite in the Grade 3 Autumn Miss Stakes.

Bejarano kept Lady Ten near the front throughout, tracking pacesetter Viva Carina through an early pace of 23.19 and 47.55 seconds. Bejarano had Lady Ten within a head of the lead with a quarter-mile to go. She took the lead before the eighth pole and held off 9-1 Customer Base to win by a neck. Lady Ten ($6.80) ran a mile on turf in 1:34.95.

“She’s nice to ride and easy to ride,” Bejarano said. “She likes to be close to the lead.”

Charm the Maker finished third in the field of 10. Vionnet had a rough trip in the stretch, racing in traffic near the eighth pole. She finished seventh, beaten 3 3/4 lengths.

Lady Ten, by Rock Hard Ten, has won 4 of 11 starts and $246,244.