Somerset West won't be overlooked this time in Autumn Miss

The last time Somerset West raced at Santa Anita, she won a maiden race at 6 1/2 furlongs on turf on the same day as the Belmont Stakes.

More than four months later, Somerset West returns to Santa Anita in Sunday’s Grade 3 Autumn Miss Stakes as a surprising two-time stakes winner. She was 35-1 when she rallied from last of 10 to win the Grade 2 San Clemente Stakes at a mile in July, and was only 19-1 when she closed from eighth of 12 to win the Grade 2 Music City Stakes at 6 1/2 furlongs at Kentucky Downs on Sept. 5.

Somerset West will have a comparable running style the $100,000 Autumn Miss Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at a mile on turf. The financials will be considerably different. The Music City Stakes had a purse of $1.235 million. Somerset West will be among the favorites in the Autumn Miss Stakes, which drew a solid field of 11.

Trained by John Sadler for owner and breeder Keith Abrahams, Somerset West has changed in the last 90 days.

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“She’s been a little better than she was at Del Mar,” Sadler said. “She has not lost a step.”

The Autumn Miss Stakes serves as a prep for a Grade 1 stakes later this year for Somerset West – the Matriarch Stakes against older fillies and mares at a mile on turf at Del Mar on Nov. 29, or the La Brea Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at seven furlongs on dirt at Santa Anita on Dec. 26.

“She’s training really well on the dirt,” Sadler said. “We’ll have to take it one step at a time.”

The first objective is to overcome the outside post in the Autumn Miss, which drew two other stakes winners in Brave Deb and La Ville Lumiere, as well as Green Carrera, who won the Sandringham Handicap at a mile for 3-year-old fillies by two lengths against 29 rivals at Royal Ascot in Britain in June.

In her American debut, Green Carrera finished fourth by 2 1/2 lengths in the Grade 1 Del Mar Oaks at 1 1/8 miles on turf on Aug. 22 after a slow start. She has since been transferred from Ireland-based Joseph O’Brien to Leonard Powell in California.

Powell expects a better performance on Sunday.

“She was a bit slow out of the gate. She finished really well,” he said. “It’s all relative to pace. I hope there is enough pace for her to close.”

The chances of closers such as Green Carrera and Somerset West will be helped if runners such as Brave Deb, Goodies, and Latte Luv are quick early.

Brave Deb won the Grade 3 Surfer Girl Stakes at a mile on turf for 2-year-old fillies at Santa Anita last October. She returned from an 11-month layoff to finish sixth of nine in the Grade 3 John C. Harris Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at about 6 1/2 furlongs on the hillside turf course on Sept. 26.

“It wasn’t a smooth race,” trainer Richard Mandella said. “I think she’ll be better going two turns.”

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