Stormy Lucy targets Robert Frankel Stakes

Stormy Lucy, upset winner of the Grade 1 Matriarch Stakes at Del Mar last Sunday, will stay in training in 2016 with the goal of running in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Santa Anita next November.

It will not be long before Stormy Lucy is back in action.

Trainer Ed Moger Jr. said on Wednesday that Stormy Lucy will be pointed for the $100,000 Robert Frankel Stakes for fillies and mares at 1 1/8 miles on turf at Santa Anita on Dec. 27.

“We’re going to keep going with her as long as she stays healthy,” Moger said.

Stormy Lucy closed from eighth in a field of 14 to win the $302,250 Matriarch Stakes by a head over Recepta. Stormy Lucy paid $132.40 as the second-longest shot in the field.

“She’s been doing really good,” Moger said. “We kept thinking she’d win one of those big races.”

Six weeks ago, Stormy Lucy was a hopeful for the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Keeneland, but ended stuck on the also-eligible list. Had she gone to Kentucky, she would have likely been sold at a breeding stock sale there. Instead, Moger and his brother Steve, who owns the 6-year-old mare, decided to keep her in training in California.

The sequence of events led to a start in the Matriarch, and a career-defining win.

“It’s hard to imagine,” Moger said.

Stormy Lucy has won 8 of 31 starts and earned $771,700. She was 11th in the BC Filly and Mare Turf in 2012 when trained by Frank Lucarelli. She joined Moger’s stable last April after a private purchase. Stormy Lucy won consecutive graded stakes last spring at Santa Anita, making the BC Filly and Mare Turf there next year even more enticing, Moger said.

“That’s why we’re keeping her training,” Moger said. “We want to run in the Breeders’ Cup.”