Santa Barbara set to add to family trophy case in Belmont Oaks

ELMONT, N.Y. – Hailing from a family of foreign-bred horses who have had terrific success in the U.S., Santa Barbara will try to do her family proud when she heads a field of eight 3-year-old fillies entered in the Grade 1, $700,000 Belmont Oaks on Saturday at Belmont Park.

Santa Barbara is a daughter of Camelot out of the Danehill mare Senta’s Dream. That mare has produced Iridessa, a 13-1 winner of the 2019 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Santa Anita, and Order of Australia, who pulled off a 78-1 upset in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Mile at Keeneland.

There will be no such value on Santa Barbara, who despite her 1-for-4 record looks like the one to beat in Saturday’s 1 1/4-mile Oaks.

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Santa Barbara, trained by Aidan O’Brien, was a debut winner last September at the Curragh in Ireland. She has run in three Group 1 stakes this year, finishing fourth in the English 1000 Guineas, a well-beaten fifth in the Epsom Oaks – won by a monster in Snowfall – and, most recently, second, beaten a neck by Thundering Nights in the Group 1 Pretty Polly at the Curragh just two weeks ago. Thundering Nights was coming off a nose loss to Mean Mary in the New York Stakes at Belmont three weeks earlier.

“She’s lightly raced and hard-raced at the same time,” T.J. Comerford, assistant to O’Brien, said of Santa Barbara. “Every race she’s had this year has been a Group 1 and she’s been running very well in them.”

Comerford said the combination of soft turf and perhaps the 1 1/2-mile distance conspired against Santa Barbara in the Epsom Oaks. She rebounded with a much better run in the Pretty Polly.

“Last time, at the Curragh, the quicker ground suited her taking on the older fillies and she ran well,” Comerford said. “Coming here on the back of that, it doesn’t seem to have fazed her at all. She looks magnificent. She looks like a colt.”

O’Brien won this race in 2018 with Athena, who was wheeling back in two weeks after running third in the Pretty Polly.

Ryan Moore, who came here three years ago to ride Athena, is coming from Europe to ride Santa Barbara.

Chad Brown has won the Oaks – previously known as the Garden City – five times since 2012. Saturday, he sends out the lightly raced Higher Truth, who is making her stakes debut. She has two wins, both at 1 1/4 miles and both over the course on which this race will be run.

“She continues to get better as her pedigree says she should,” Brown said. “Her numbers are as strong as any of the other domestic horses. She’s done a lot of right things in her last two starts and she’s not going to mind give in the ground.”

Cherie DeVaux, a former assistant to Brown before going out on her own a few years ago, brings Gam’s Mission to the Oaks on a three-race winning streak. In her last race, she won the Grade 3 Regret Stakes going nine furlongs over turf rated good at Churchill Downs.

“She finishes full of run,” DeVaux said. “This is an entire furlong farther than what she has run, but she acts like she should be able to handle it. She continues to improve each race, which is what we like to see, but she’s going to really have to step it up for this race.”

Adam Beschizza is in from Kentucky to ride.

Spanish Loveaffair finished second in the Regret, her first start in eight weeks after having finished sixth in the Grade 2 Appalachian at Keeneland. Trainer Mark Casse said Spanish Loveaffair was diagnosed with a fungal infection in her throat after the Appalachian and perhaps she got a bit tired late in the Regret.

The British-raced Nazuna is making her second trip to the U.S. Last November in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Keeneland, she finished 10th, beaten 6 1/2 lengths.

“She got squeezed early on in the race and lost her position,” said Michael McGowan, assistant to trainer Roger Varian. “She finished the race, but the race was already over. She came back and wasn’t even blowing.”

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Nazuna finished second in her only start this year, the Group 3 Princess Elizabeth Stakes at Epsom on June 5. That race was at 1 1/16 miles, and McGowan felt she finished well enough to indicate 1 1/4 miles will be within her scope.

Con Lima, trained by Todd Pletcher, will attempt to stretch out to 1 1/4 miles after winning the Grade 3 Wonder Again going 1 1/8 miles on June 3. She is likely to be a forward factor breaking from the rail under Flavien Prat on Saturday.

Plum Ali, a late-running second to Con Lima in the Wonder Again, and Cirona, in from France for trainer Christophe Ferland, complete the field.