So Happy on vacation; Take a Breath Yellow Ribbon-bound

Santa Anita Derby winner So Happy, who finished ninth in the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs on May 2, is in the midst of a 60-day rest, trainer Mark Glatt said on Friday.

“He’ll take a little bit of a sabbatical,” Glatt said. “He’ll be back before you know it. We’ll gear him back up.”

Glatt said he hopes to have So Happy back to his stable during the Del Mar summer meeting.

“I think we’ll let him get off the track a little bit and let him be a horse,” Glatt said.

A winner of 3 of 5 starts, So Happy was near the front for the first mile of the Kentucky Derby before fading to finish 7 1/2 lengths behind winner Golden Tempo. So Happy was the 5-1 third choice in a field of 18.

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So Happy won his second stakes in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby at 1 1/8 miles on April 4. In January, So Happy won the Grade 2 San Vicente Stakes at seven furlongs in his first start of the year and second career race.

So Happy races for Hans and Ana Maron, who race as Saints or Sinners Stable, and Robbie Norman.

The Glatt-trained Take A Breath, a two-time Grade 3 stakes winner this year, is bound for the Grade 2 Yellow Ribbon Stakes at Del Mar on Aug. 8 after finishing third by four lengths in Monday’s Grade 1 Gamely Stakes at Santa Anita.

“She tried her usual hard self,” Glatt said. “She got third money in a Grade 1, which is wonderful.”

The $300,000 Gamely Stakes was won by Thought Process, who stalked the pace before pulling clear to win by 2 3/4 lengths. Take A Breath, a 4-year-old filly who races as a closer, rallied from fifth of eight to gain her best position at the finish.

“With a filly like the winner, we didn’t get a pace scenario that was advantageous,” Glatt said. “That being said, the winner is something else. She’s very, very good. She’s got to be one of the better fillies and mares in the nation.”

Take A Breath, co-owned by Chivalry Thoroughbred Racing and Rancho Temescal Thoroughbred Partners, won the Grade 3 Santa Ana Stakes at 1 1/4 miles on turf in March and the Grade 3 Royal Heroine Stakes at a mile on turf in April.

The $200,000 Yellow Ribbon Stakes for fillies and mares is run at 1 1/16 miles on turf.

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