Sunday Rules looks to rebound in Spring Fever Handicap
ARCADIA, Calif. – Sunday Rules ran the worst race of her career when she finished ninth in the Grade 1 Madison Stakes at Keeneland on April 9. It was an inopportune time for a clunker, her first appearance in a race at the highest level.
“The track was very sandy,” trainer Phil D’Amato recalled on Saturday. “She didn’t travel the same on that track. She couldn’t grip it.”
The friendly surroundings of Santa Anita, and an appearance against California-breds, will favor Sunday Rules when she starts for the first time in nearly three months in the Spring Fever Handicap for fillies and mares on Monday. The six-furlong Spring Fever is the first of two $100,000 stakes for statebreds on the nine-race holiday program. The $100,000 Thor’s Echo Handicap at six furlongs drew a field of six, including four stakes winners.
Spring Fever Handicap
Sunday Rules is one of three stakes winners among the five runners in the Spring Fever. Lost Bus won the Grade 2 Santa Monica Stakes in a 64-1 upset in January. Harlington’s Rose won the Grade 3 Las Flores Stakes in March 2015.
Sunday Rules has won 8 of 10 starts for owner and breeder Nick Alexander, with the losses coming in graded stakes. A 5-year-old mare, Sunday Rules is unbeaten in five starts at Santa Anita, including the California Cup Sprint against males in January. Sunday Rules won the 2015 Spring Fever by three lengths.
After the Madison, Sunday Rules did little for a month, D’Amato said.
“We gave her a freshening after the race in Keeneland,” D’Amato said. “We gave her an easy month, and we had this race in mind. The last couple of breezes have been impressive.”
D’Amato said he was especially encouraged by a six-furlong workout in 1:12.40 on June 25.
Lost Bus has kept good company since her win in the Santa Monica. She was third in the Grade 2 Great Lady M. Stakes at Los Alamitos on April 23 and fourth in the Grade 1 Vanity Mile behind the champions Beholder and Stellar Wind on June 4.
Trained by Gary Sherlock, Lost Bus was third behind Sunday Rules in the minor Kalookan Queen Stakes in December, their most recent meeting. On Saturday, Sherlock expressed concern about the distance, thinking Lost Bus could be better in longer sprints.
“Six furlongs is pretty short,” he said. “I put some speed back in her, and she should be okay. She’s a lot better at seven-eighths.”
Thor’s Echo Handicap
Forest Chatter has excelled on the hillside turf course, winning 5 of 7 starts and finishing second and third in two stakes earlier this year. The turf course was resod in June and will not be used again until September.
The Thor’s Echo Handicap will be Forest Chatter’s first start on dirt since a fourth in the Cary Grant Stakes at Del Mar last November.
“He’s not been the same on the dirt as turf, but he’s not bad,” trainer Richard Mandella said.
Mandella said Forest Chatter has trained well in recent weeks, noting that he was pleased with the 5-year-old gelding’s “good times and good finishes.” Forest Chatter had the fastest recorded work three times in late June.
Forest Chatter can race near the front but is likely to stalk Love My Bud, who is making his stakes debut, and Mrazek, a 2015 stakes winner trained by Doug O’Neill. Mrazek was 10th in the Grade 2 Woody Stephens Stakes at Belmont Park on June 11 but a game second in the Grade 3 Laz Barrera Stakes for 3-year-olds here on May 14.
The Thor’s Echo Handicap is the first start of the year for Magic Mark, the winner of the Bertrando Stakes for California-breds at Los Alamitos last July.
Raised a Secret will be a threat from off the pace. He was third in the Grade 3 Los Angeles Stakes at Los Alamitos in April and third behind Lord Nelson in an optional claimer June 3. Lord Nelson won the Grade 1 Triple Bend Stakes at Santa Anita on June 25.