Santa Anita: Reneesgotzip will try two turns in Las Virgenes

ARCADIA, Calif. – Reneesgotzip, the undefeated 3-year-old filly, will start around two turns for the first time in the $250,000 Las Virgenes Stakes over a mile on March 3, trainer Peter Miller said.

The race may define how the speedy Reneesgotzip is campaigned through the spring. So far, she has proved to be untouchable.

Sunday, Reneesgotzip had a wildly successful stakes debut, winning the Grade 2 Santa Ynez Stakes over 6 1/2 furlongs by 7 3/4 lengths, pulling clear through the stretch for her second career win.

“Everything looks good,” Miller said on Monday. “It does look like we’ll point for the Las Virgenes Stakes.”

Reneesgotzip led throughout the Santa Ynez. Miller said the filly’s training in the next seven weeks will be designed to throttle that speed.

“We may train her a little bit differently,” he said. “Not have her quite as sharp.”

Reneesgotzip races for the Lanni Family Trust, led by Debbie Lanni. Her late husband, Terry Lanni, who died last summer, was the former chairman of the gaming company MGM Grand until his retirement in 2008.

An avid racegoer, Lanni owned Game On Dude in partnership and watched the colt win the Santa Anita Handicap last March.

“This was his greatest hobby,” his son, Patrick Lanni, said of his father in the winner’s circle on Sunday.

Game On Dude, the runner-up in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Churchill Downs in November, is scheduled to make his 2012 debut in the $200,000 San Antonio Stakes on Feb. 5.