Saturday stakes winners plot next moves

ARCADIA, Calif. – The winners of the five six-figure stakes for California-breds Saturday at Santa Anita may reappear in stakes ranging from the $500,000 Gold Cup at Santa Anita on June 27 to lesser stakes at Santa Anita next month and at Los Alamitos and Del Mar later this summer.

Motown Men, who won Saturday’s $151,250 Tiznow Stakes at a mile, is a candidate for the Grade 1 Gold Cup at Santa Anita at 1 1/4 miles June 27, trainer Ted H. West said Sunday.

“It’s on our radar,” West said. “I don’t know if the five weeks is too quick back. A half-million dollars is a good opportunity.”

Owned by Phil Bongiovanni’s Gulliver Racing, Motown Men was claimed for $40,000 March 8. In three subsequent starts, Motown Men has won an optional claimer, in which he was eligible to be claimed for $62,500, April 10; finished third in the Grade 3 Precisionist Stakes on May 2; and won the Tiznow Stakes.
Motown Men has earned $148,800 since being claimed.

The Gold Cup at Santa Anita has increased appeal for West and Bongiovanni. The race will not include Santa Anita Handicap winner Shared Belief, who is recovering from a hip injury, or 2014 Horse of the Year California Chrome, who is in England being prepared for the Group 1 Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot on June 17.

The June 27 program includes the $200,000 Royal Heroine Stakes for fillies and mares at a mile on turf, a race that has appeal to Eddie Truman, who trains Go West Marie, the winner of Saturday’s $127,750 Fran’s Valentine Stakes for fillies and mares at a mile on turf.

“I think we’d have to keep that option,” Truman said. “Last night, she was eating away, and she looked good this morning.”

Owned by Peter Redekop, Go West Marie could run in the $150,000 Solana Beach Handicap for California-bred fillies and mares at a mile on turf Aug. 16 at Del Mar. Go West Marie has won four stakes in the last year.

The stakes winner with the fastest turnaround is likely to be Sheer Pleasure, the winner of the $196,000 Melair Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at 1 1/16 miles by 7 1/4 lengths. Owned by the Little Red Feather Racing partnership and R/M Racing, Sheer Pleasure is a candidate for the $200,000 Summertime Oaks, a Grade 2 at 1 1/16 miles for 3-year-old fillies June 20.

Tyler Baze rode Sheer Pleasure, one of his three stakes wins Saturday.

The Melair Stakes was Sheer Pleasure’s second consecutive stakes win, preceded by the Evening Jewel Stakes for California-bred sprinters April 4. The style of the win in the Melair surprised trainer Phil D’Amato.

“I was impressed with the way that Sheer Pleasure won and drew off,” D’Amato said. “The Summertime Oaks would be a logical spot. Tyler said he had more horse if he needed it.”

D’Amato had two stakes wins Saturday. Earlier on the program, Sunday Rules remained unbeaten in five starts with a three-length win in the $150,250 Spring Fever Stakes for California-bred female sprinters. Sunday Rules was sent off at 3-10, the shortest price on Saturday’s program.

“Sunday Rules is like a machine,” D’Amato said.

Owned by Nick Alexander, Sunday Rules may make her graded stakes debut in the $200,000 Great Lady M Stakes, a Grade 2 for fillies and mares at 6 1/2 furlongs July 11 at Los Alamitos.

“That would be a good spot,” D’Amato said.

Race plans are uncertain for Neveradoubt, the shock winner at 41-1 in the $200,750 Snow Chief Stakes for 3-year-olds at 1 1/8 miles on turf.

Neveradoubt, who races for SLO Racing Stable, Tom Hudson, and Tony Narducci, won his first stakes in the Snow Chief Stakes.

Trainer Mike Puype said he plans to take a patient approach to the colt’s summer season.

“Everything is good so far,” Puype said. “It wasn’t an easy spot. I felt like he’d go the distance and thought he had a chance. Some of them couldn’t go that far. We don’t have anything in mind.”