Storm the Hill may take break until January

ARCADIA, Calif. - Storm the Hill’s affinity for Santa Anita’s turf course may keep the 4-year-old filly from racing until early January.

Storm the Hill won her third stakes at Santa Anita on Saturday in the Grade 3 Sen. Ken Maddy Stakes on the hillside turf course. By Get Stormy, Storm the Hill has won 5 of 23 starts and earned $338,735, with all the wins coming in seven starts on turf at Santa Anita.

Trainer Phil D’Amato said Sunday that options for Storm the Hill include the Grade 1 Matriarch Stakes at a mile on turf for fillies and mares at Del Mar on Dec. 2, or waiting for the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting that begins on Dec. 26.

The first hillside turf stakes for fillies and mares at the winter-spring meeting is the Grade 3 Las Cienegas Stakes on Jan. 12.

“We have next year to look forward to with plenty of graded stakes down the hill,” D’Amato said. “We could go for something like that.”

Storm the Hill earned a career-best Beyer Speed Figure of 97 in the Maddy Stakes, in which she rallied from the back of the field to catch pacesetter Painting Corners in the final furlong.

Owned by Michael Valdes and Alastar Thoroughbred Company, Storm the Hill won the Grade 3 Wilshire Stakes at a mile on turf at Santa Anita in June. She was beaten in her next two starts – a fifth in the Grade 2 Yellow Ribbon Handicap at Del Mar in August and fourth in the Kentucky Cup Ladies Turf at Kentucky Downs on Sept. 8.