Top Kisser enters Breeders' Cup picture

ARCADIA, Calif. – Top Kisser, the winner of the L.A. Woman Stakes on Oct. 4, is scheduled to make her next start in the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint at Santa Anita on Nov. 1, trainer Jerry Hollendorfer said Friday.

Top Kisser has won 7 of 14 starts and $407,100. The Grade 3 L.A. Woman Stakes was her third stakes win but her first in a graded stakes.

The BC Filly and Mare Sprint is run over seven furlongs. The L.A. Woman Stakes was run over 6 1/2 furlongs.

“The distance looks like it will be ideal,” Hollendorfer said of the Breeders’ Cup.

Top Kisser must be made eligible to the Breeders’ Cup program at a cost of $100,000. Top Kisser is a California-bred by Old Topper who races for breeders Tom and Debbie Stull.

Top Kisser would join a list of contenders in the Filly and Mare Sprint that includes Artemis Agrotera, the winner of the Grade 2 Gallant Bloom at Belmont Park on Sept. 20; Judy the Beauty, who won the Grade 3 Rancho Bernardo at Del Mar on Aug. 17; and Midnight Lucky, who won the Grade 1 Humana Distaff at Churchill Downs in May.

Hollendorfer may have another filly to watch this winter in Taste Like Candy, the winner of an optional claimer for fillies and mares over 1 1/16 miles on Thursday at Santa Anita. Ridden by Rafael Bejarano, Taste Like Candy ($6) was prominent throughout and won by three-quarters of a length over 9-1 Fleet of Gold.

Taste Like Candy was second in the Grade 1 Hollywood Starlet last December and second in the Grade 2 Santa Ynez Stakes here in January. She was given a four-month break after finishing sixth in the Santa Paula Stakes here in April. Thursday’s race was her third start following a layoff.

“We thought she was a stakes filly,” Hollendorfer said. “We had some little problems here and there, and we gave her some time off. She’s responded really well.”