With Tamara's retirement, Las Flores is anyone's race

ARCADIA, Calif. – A filly-mare sprint stakes that looked like a formality for the favorite unraveled when Grade 1 winner Tamara was injured and retired days before her comeback.

Instead of a short-price standout in the Grade 3 Las Flores on Sunday at Santa Anita, the six-furlong stakes attracted five allowance-caliber runners seeking their first U.S. stakes victory.

Magnificat and Thermal move up from entry-level allowance wins. Ooty, a Group 1 winner in Argentina, makes her first start in four months. Last-out maiden winners Margarita Girl and Nafisa also entered the Las Flores, race 6. The weather forecast is bleak. More rain is expected.

Richard Mandella trained Tamara, the Spendthrift Farm-owned and bred daughter of Beholder whose 3-for-5 career included a romp in the Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante in 2023. Tamara reportedly will be bred to Omaha Beach. Coincidentally, her place in the Las Flores will be taken by Magnificat, an Omaha Beach filly also trained by Mandella and owned by Spendthrift.

:: Santa Anita Classic Meet! Get DRF Past Performances, Clocker Reports, and more.

Magnificat finished second in her debut last summer, followed by maiden and allowance wins. Mandella took a shot and entered her in the Grade 1 La Brea Stakes for 3-year-old fillies on Dec. 28. Magnificat did not make it to the gate.

“She tore her shoe off the morning of the race,” Mandella said. “I didn’t want to just put it right back on and go. [Her foot] was a little tender.”

It was a minor setback, and Magnificat quickly recovered.

“She came around. I worked her [on Dec. 30] to make sure, just a half in 49” seconds, Mandella said.

Mirco Demuro rides Magnificat, who breaks from the inside post. Her Beyer Speed Figures are modest – back-to-back 84s.

“This filly’s kind of a sleeper, she just kind of does what she has to do,” Mandella said. “She’s not a show-off.”

The same applies to her main rival in the Las Flores.

Thermal was a distance-challenged turf sprinter until trainer John Sadler moved her back to dirt Oct. 17 at Santa Anita. Thermal won by nearly four lengths with a 93 Beyer that tops the Las Flores field. Where did that race come from?

“It was the switch back to dirt,” Sadler said. “All the time we ran her on the grass, it looked like the next time she’s going to [win] – the next time, the next time. It was time to try her back on dirt, and she responded with a big win.”

Sadler hoped to run Thermal in fall at Del Mar, but a second-level allowance did not fill, and he set sights on hitting the board in the Las Flores.

“I was expecting Tamara to run, and I said, ‘Well, I can be a good second,’ ” Sadler said.

Expectations are higher without Tamara in the Las Flores. Thermal and jockey Hector Berrios are likely to vie for favoritism.

Ooty makes her first start since September at Del Mar, where she finished last in an ungraded route stakes. The runner-up sprint finish by Ooty in her U.S. debut in July at Del Mar puts her in the hunt. She is trained by Bob Baffert, who also entered last-out maiden winner Nafisa.

:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.