Santa Anita: Let Faith Arise feeling right at home

ARCADIA, Calif. – The elongated season under which Santa Anita now operates could be advantageous for Let Faith Arise, who has progressed mightily this meet and reached new heights by capturing the Grade 1 Santa Margarita Stakes on Saturday.

Let Faith Arise began her career in Northern California, where she raced on the synthetic Tapeta surface at Golden Gate Fields. Since coming to Santa Anita, moving to dirt, and stretching out around two turns, she has been second in the La Canada and Santa Maria, both Grade 2 races, before scoring her first graded stakes win in the Santa Margarita.

“She really likes this track,” Dan Ward, the local assistant to trainer Jerry Hollendorfer, said Sunday morning. “There’s a really good series here, so there’s no need to ship her if we don’t want to.”

Ward said the next major goal for Let Faith Arise would be the Grade 1, $300,000 Vanity on June 14. The Vanity was the longtime championship race of the meet at Hollywood Park, which closed last December. Santa Anita beginning this year picked up the bulk of the spring-summer dates that had been run at Hollywood Park.

Let Faith Arise, a daughter of Kafwain, was bred and is owned by the Tommy Town Thoroughbreds of Tom and Debi Stull. It was their first Grade 1 win.