Santa Anita: Iotapa targets Santa Margarita Stakes after winning Santa Maria

ARCADIA, Calif. – Iotapa never set the pace in her first seven starts but always managed to finish in the top three. Along the way, she won the minor Railbird Stakes for 3-year-old sprinters at Hollywood Park last May and placed in four graded stakes.

The tactics changed for Saturday’s $200,250 Santa Maria Stakes over 1 1/16 miles at Santa Anita. Iotapa took the early lead and set the pace under jockey Joe Talamo. She proved impossible to catch, winning by 1 3/4 lengths over Let Faith Arise.

The win has left trainer John Sadler and owner Kosta Hronis anxious to try Iotapa in a tougher race, the $350,000 Santa Margarita Stakes over 1 1/8 miles on March 15. The Grade 1 Santa Margarita is the championship race on the main track for fillies and mares at the winter-spring meeting.

“That’s what we’re planning,” Sadler said.

Iotapa has been a steal for Sadler and Hronis. She was claimed for $50,000 when she made her debut against maidens at Hollywood Park in June 2012, although the claim may not have looked like a bargain at the time. Iotapa did not start again until Feb. 15, 2013, the day she won an optional claimer over six furlongs.

By Afleet Alex, Iotapa was second to champion Beholder in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Oaks last April before winning the Railbird Stakes. She also was second in the Hollywood Oaks over 1 1/16 miles in June and third in the San Clemente Handicap on turf at Del Mar in July, her final start of the year.

Iotapa finished second in the Grade 2 Santa Monica Stakes over seven furlongs in her comeback race Jan. 25, a race Sadler hoped would serve as a good prep for the Santa Maria. He was proven correct when she won Saturday on the one-year anniversary of her first win for Hronis. Iotapa has won 4 of 8 starts and earned $363,490.

“I gave her a break deliberately because I wanted to have an older filly for this year,” Sadler said. “You want to have horses for these kind of races.”