Santa Anita: Lady Asano tries to defy pedigree in turf allowance

ARCADIA, Calif. – Lady Asano does not have a two-turn pedigree, yet the daughter of sprint sire Teuflesberg won her first route by more than seven lengths and is 2 for 4 around two turns.

Lady Asano is not bred for turf, either. Yet that will not dissuade bettors from backing her Thursday at Santa Anita, where she might be the horse to beat in race 3, a second-level allowance at one mile on turf.

“She’s kind of an untraditional Teuflesberg,” trainer John Sadler said.

No kidding. Teuflesberg was a sprinter, and he sired champion sprinter Trinniberg from his first crop. But the 3-year-old filly Lady Asano is rewriting the pedigree page.

“Nothing in her pedigree says grass,” Sadler admitted. “She likes synthetic. I don’t think she likes dirt. I want to try her on grass.”

Although Lady Asano won a main-track maiden race in January at Santa Anita first start off the $75,000 claim by Sadler and owner Hronis Racing, Sadler said he believes that dirt-surface victory was partly because of the wet track.

“She won in the mud and then ran bad in the Santa Anita Oaks,” he said. “She has an every-other-race pattern.”

Lady Asano won a first-level allowance at Del Mar in her return from a layoff of nearly five months and then regressed second start back, finishing a distant fourth behind stablemate Magic Union.

“I ran her back too close,” Sadler said. “She runs really well” fresh.

Julien Leparoux rides Lady Asano, whose Betfair Hollywood Park works – and Sadler’s comments – indicate she will fire. If she handles turf – a question since Teuflesberg progeny are 2 for 37 on turf, according to Daily Racing Form – she can win. Otherwise, the first leg of the Thursday pick six is a spread.

Life Is a Stone and English Crossing are the pacesetter candidates over a turf course that has begun to play fair. Deep closers dominated turf routes most of the first three weeks, but the profile shifted last weekend as speed held. The turf rails Thursday are at 24 feet.

Life Is a Stone won three of her last seven in Northern California for trainer Jerry Hollendorfer. She is making her first start since late July. Rafael Bejarano rides.

English Crossing finished second last out under the same conditions at Del Mar and will be among the early leaders.

Gulsary finished a closing fourth in her U.S. debut for trainer Tom Proctor; Disko Dasko was unplaced in four successive stakes for 3-year-olds; Perfecta has run races that put her in the hunt.