Santa Anita invites fans to help rename stakes

Santa Anita is conducting a contest to name one of the stakes races for its upcoming autumn meeting.

Last year, the first in which Santa Anita operated a fall meeting, the track purchased the naming rights of stakes that had been run in past years when the Oak Tree Racing Association conducted the meeting.

No such financial arrangement has been reached for this year’s meeting, which will lead to new names for “a number” of stakes during the meeting which runs from Sept. 28 to Nov. 4, according to a statement released by the track.

Racing fans have been invited to submit names for a $100,000 stakes for 3-year-old fillies on turf that was previously known as the Harold C. Ramser Stakes.

The race will be run on Oct. 20, and the winning entry will receive a box seat, VIP tour of the track, and hotel accommodation.

Entries for the new race name must be submitted by noon on June 15, to namethatstake@santaanita.com. Customers attending simulcasts at Santa Anita can submit entries at the track through June 14.

“There are many things to consider, such as local geography, history and culture, prominent past winners, both human and equine,” said Rick Hammerle, Santa Anita’s vice president of racing. “I think those who participate with us will discover this is not as easy as it may seem.”

Mizdirection will rest until fall

Mizdirection, second as the beaten favorite in the Great Lady M Stakes on May 27, will be turned out for six weeks with the intent of a return to racing in the fall, trainer Mike Puype said.

A four-time stakes winner, Mizdirection will miss the Del Mar meeting this summer, and return to racing for a stakes for fillies and mares on the hillside turf course at Santa Anita in late September. A start against males in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint at Santa Anita on Nov. 3 is a possibility, Puype said.

Mizdirection has won 6 of 11 starts and $374,621, but could only finish second by 1 1/4 lengths to Mega Dream in the Great Lady M Stakes over six furlongs on turf.

“She’s been in training for two straight years,” Puype said. “She needs a break.”

Puype said opportunities on turf at Del Mar this summer do not necessarily suit Mizidirection. “Del Mar is five-eighths or a mile, and I think she’s better at six or 6 1/2 furlongs,” he said. “If I have to give her the time, this is the time,” he said.

Puype described Mizdirection’s physical condition as “excellent.”