Streaking Anisette crosses paths with Didia in Rodeo Drive

This has been a perfect year so far for the 3-year-old filly Anisette, who is unbeaten in three starts in the United States, including two graded stakes at the Del Mar summer meeting.

It has not been a perfect year for the outstanding older mare Didia, who was withdrawn from a key start in the Grade 1 Beverly D. Stakes at Colonial Downs on Aug. 12 after sustaining a cut on her head in the weeks before the race that needed a few stitches.

Anisette and Didia meet for the first time in the most important races of their respective seasons in Saturday’s Grade 2 Rodeo Drive Stakes at 1 1/4 miles on turf at Santa Anita. The winner of the $300,000 Rodeo Drive Stakes receives a fees-paid berth to the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf at 1 1/4 miles at Santa Anita on Nov. 4.

For Anisette, the Rodeo Drive Stakes is the longest start of her accomplished career.

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“We’re going in confident,” trainer Leonard Powell said. “She should be one of the contenders.”

Didia, trained by Ignacio Correas, has not raced since she finished a game second in the Grade 1 New York Stakes for fillies and mares at 1 1/4 miles at Belmont Park in June.

“This break is not because we wanted,” Correas said. “I think she’s very fit. She’s ready.”

The eight fillies and mares in the Rodeo Drive are all stakes winners in the United States and aboard.

The field drew Closing Remarks and Turnerloose, the first two finishers of the Grade 2 John C. Mabee Stakes at 1 1/8 miles on turf at Del Mar on Sept. 9; Juncture, winner of the Ouija Board Stakes at Lone Star Park in May; the Northern California stakes winner Stoic Luna; Neige Blanche, who won the Possibly Perfect Stakes in June for Powell; and Symphony Perfect, a stakes winner in Britain in 2021.

Anisette, who races for Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, is a closer who utilized that style to win the most prestigious race of her career in her latest start, the Grade 1 Del Mar Oaks at 1 1/8 miles on turf by 2 3/4 lengths on Aug. 19.

The manner of that win indicates to Powell that the Rodeo Drive distance is achievable for Anisette, who has won her last four starts, beginning with her final start in Britain last December.

“Looking back on the last race, I don’t think the extra eighth of a mile will be an issue, Powell said. “We’re going against older and that’s a new barometer.”

Powell expressed concern about the Santa Anita turf course, which was favorable to runners racing near the front last weekend in the first days of the track’s autumn meeting.

“I just hope the turf course doesn’t play as fast as last weekend,” he said. “I want to stay polite, but it was ridiculous.”

Didia, a winner of 8 of 12 starts in Argentina and the United States, had a seven-race winning streak end with a loss by three-quarters of a length to Marketsegmentation in the New York Stakes.

Correas considers the Rodeo Drive an important prep for the BC Filly and Mare Turf.

“I need a race before the Breeders’ Cup,” Correas said. “To have a test on the course is always good. We will know where we’re at. She’s sitting on big race.”

While Anisette is a closer, Didia races from a stalking position. She will be ridden by Vincent Cheminaud, a former champion jump jockey in France who will have his first mount at Santa Anita on Saturday.

Cheminaud has been Didia’s regular rider in the United States.

“She can stalk the pace and come from a little bit off the pace,” Correas said. “Her best asset is when she changes speeds. She has another gear.”

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