Santa Anita: Pontchatrain confirms affinity for downhill course by taking Monrovia

ARCADIA, Calif. – With two-time Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint winner Mizdirection having been retired, there’s room on the throne for a new queen of the local hill, a position to which Ponchatrain is ascending. She scored her third straight win on the hillside turf course, in the Grade 2, $200,500 Monrovia Stakes for female turf sprinters on Sunday at Santa Anita.

Pontchatrain ($4.20) made it look easy, with a flawless ride under Gary Stevens, but looks were deceiving. Pontchatrain came back to the winner’s circle with her right hind shoe askew, titled about 45 degrees to the right. Stevens said she was bumped in that leg leaving the gate by Camryn Kate, so she likely competed throughout the race with the shoe more a hindrance than a help.

Not that it mattered. Pontchatrain flew down the about 6 1/2-furlong course in 1:11.14, just .04 of a second off the course record. She reeled in the comebacking Kindle, who ran huge in her own right, and prevailed by three-quarters of a length, with Purim’s Dancer another 1 1/4 lengths back in third.

Ultrasonic was fourth and was followed, in order, by Ciao Bella Luna, Winding Way, and Camryn Kate.

Tom Proctor trains both Pontchatrain and Purim’s Dancer. The horses felt better than Proctor, who had a deep, ugly cough.

“I’ve been deathly ill all week,” said Proctor, who scored the 1,000th win of his career in a race at Tampa Bay Downs on Saturday. “I didn’t think I was going to make it to 1,000. I thought I was going down at 999.”

Pontchatrain, 4, is a daughter of War Front. She has now won 5 of 7 starts, including four of her last five. She won two races on the hillside turf course during the fall meet here, the Unzip Me, and the Grade 3 Ken Maddy.

Proctor said Pontchatrain has taken to the hillside course because “she’s a natural athlete.”

“She can just run,” he said.