Streaking Easter heads back to Grade 1 company in Kilroe Mile

Easter was a good turf horse in the first 18 months after his arrival from France in the winter of 2021-22, winning allowance races at Aqueduct and Belmont Park.

What he has accomplished since late October in California has taken his status to a higher level. Easter has won three consecutive stakes at Santa Anita and Del Mar, and will start in a Grade 1 for the first time in nearly two years in Sunday’s $300,000 Frank Kilroe Mile.

California’s firmer turf courses are a primary reason for the winning streak, trainer Phil D’Amato said earlier this week.

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“He’s really taken to the turf courses in California,” D’Amato said. “They’re not as deep and heavy as at Belmont Park.”

D’Amato’s theory will be tested in the Kilroe, which was postponed 24 hours because of weather-related concerns. The turf course on Sunday could be closer to “good” condition than firm.

Easter, owned by Madaket Stables, has won on firm courses in his last three starts – in the restricted Lure Stakes at a mile in October for trainer Graham Motion, the Grade 2 Seabiscuit Handicap at 1 1/16 miles at Del Mar in November, and the Grade 2 San Gabriel Stakes at 1 1/8 miles at Santa Anita in December.

D’Amato began training Easter after the Lure Stakes.

“He’s a horse that has found his stride and is training very well,” D’Amato said. “He’s got a lot of confidence going right now.

“We’ve been pointing to this race.”

This is Easter’s first start in a Grade 1 since finishing fourth in the Man o’War Stakes at 1 3/8 miles on turf at Belmont Park in May 2022.

In his three recent stakes wins, Easter has closed from off the pace and zoomed through the stretch to take command late.

D’Amato said jockey Antonio Fresu will be entrusted as to where to place Easter in the relatively large field on Sunday.

“He doesn’t need to be last,” D’Amato said. “He can be more tactical.”

The Kilroe, the leading turf race of the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting, has drawn eight stakes winners – Dandy Man Shines, Du Jour, First Peace, Goliad, Irideo, Prince Abama, and Mackinnon – and the stakes-placed Ah Jeez.

Du Jour was second by a neck in the 2023 Kilroe Mile and later won the Grade 2 Del Mar Mile in September. Trained by Bob Baffert, Du Jour finished 10th by 3 1/2 lengths in his last start in the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Santa Anita in November.

Similar to Easter, Du Jour races from off the pace.

Goliad and First Peace will have important roles toward the front.

Goliad led throughout the Grade 3 Thunder Road Stakes at a mile on turf Feb. 3, holding an advantage of as many as 12 lengths on the backstretch before winning by three lengths over Dandy Man Shines, with Ah Jeez in third.

First Peace won the John Shear Stakes for 3-year-olds on the hillside turf course last April and returned from a layoff of nearly nine months to record an attractive win in an allowance race on the hillside Feb. 15. In that race, First Peace tracked a rapid pace before taking the lead in the final furlong.

In the Kilroe, trainer Mark Glatt envisions First Peace following Goliad.

“He was an aggressive type of horse early in his career,” Glatt said. “He seems to have learned to settle with a little more age.

“If he does do that, that will be the key to getting a flat mile or not. I think I’ll be laying second to him and maybe get first run on the closers in the race.”

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