Taris tunes up for Humana Distaff

ARCADIA, Calif. - Taris, the five-time stakes winner who was third in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint at Keeneland last October, worked five furlongs in 1:02 at Santa Anita on Sunday in advance of a start in the $300,000 Humana Distaff at Churchill Downs on Saturday.

Taris will be ridden for the first time by Flavien Prat, trainer Simon Callaghan said. Prat replaces Gary Stevens, who rode Taris in the BC Filly and Mare Sprint. Stevens was aboard for Taris’s last two starts, both at Santa Anita – a win in the Grade 2 La Canada Stakes in January and a second in the Grade 1 Santa Margarita Stakes on March 19.

“We just decided to make a change,” Callaghan said of the jockey switch.

The Grade 1 Humana Distaff is run at seven furlongs for fillies and mares.

A 5-year-old, Taris has won 7 of 12 starts and earned $907,700. She races for Michael Tabor, Derrick Smith, and Susan Magnier, who bought her for $2.35 million at the 2014 Keeneland November breeding stock sale.