Sweet Azteca could return in Great Lady M.

Is another track record in store for comebacker Sweet Azteca? It depends on if she starts in the Grade 2 Great Lady M. Stakes on July 4 at Los Alamitos, a 6 1/2-furlong race she won in track-record time the last two years – 1:14.33 in 2024 and 1:14.32 in 2025.

Sweet Azteca will work five furlongs this weekend at Santa Anita before trainer Richard Baltas commits the five-time graded stakes winner to the $200,000 Great Lady M., the richest race of the summer daytime meet at Los Alamitos.

Considered one of the country’s top female sprinters, Sweet Azteca could have capped her 2025 season with the biggest win of her career, but she was a vet scratch from the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint at Del Mar due to foot issues. If she starts in the Great Lady M., it would be her first start since August.

“She’s about ready,” Baltas said this week at Santa Anita, where Sweet Azteca worked five furlongs in 1:01.20 on June 21. “I’d like to make the race, but I don’t want to run a horse that’s short. I’m going to work her this weekend and see how it goes.”

Sweet Azteca, owned by breeder Pam Ziebarth, has won seven races and $667,200 from nine starts. Her main objective is Oct. 31 at Keeneland.

“I’d like to get her to the Breeders’ Cup,” Baltas said. “I don’t think she has to run much, one or two races. She’s that’s type of horse.”

Sweet Azteca was given 120 days off after scratching from the BC Filly and Mare Sprint. Her work this weekend will be her third five-furlong drill since she resumed training. If she skips the Great Lady M., the next filly-mare sprint stakes in California is the Grade 3 Rancho Bernardo Stakes on Aug. 16 at Del Mar, a race she won the last two years.

Nominations to the Great Lady M. are scheduled to be published Friday.