True Valour pointing to Frank Kilroe Mile

ARCADIA, Calif. - One was expected, one was a surprise.

Trainer Simon Callaghan had his first stakes double at Santa Anita on Saturday, winning the Grade 2 Las Virgenes Stakes for 3-year-old fillies with the heavily favored Bellafina and the Grade 3 Thunder Road Stakes for turf milers with the outsider True Valour.

The two are likely to take diverse paths to their next starts.

Callaghan said Sunday that True Valour is a candidate for the Grade 1 Frank Kilroe Mile on turf March 9. It was not clear Sunday who would ride True Valour in the $400,000 Kilroe Mile. British-based Andrea Atzeni rode True Valour to an 11-1 win in the Thunder Road Stakes. Atzeni is scheduled to return to England later this month to prepare for the start of the turf portion of that country’s flat season, which begins in late March.

Callaghan said there is a chance Atzeni could return to California for the Kilroe, pending a conversation between the rider and owner Sheikh Fahad of Qatar Racing.

“I’ll leave it up to him and Sheikh Fahad,” Callaghan said.

True Valour, a two-time stakes winner in Ireland in 2017 and 2018, won for the first time in the United States in his fourth start in this country in the $100,351 Thunder Road Stakes. True Valour closed from fifth in a field of six to win by a half-length over 6-1 Ohio.

True Valour was seventh and 10th in Grade 2 stakes at Del Mar last summer, and was third in an allowance race with an $80,000 claiming option at a mile on turf here Jan. 13 in his first start in more than four months.

“We learned a lot from his (last) race,” Callaghan said. “He needs to be produced late.”

Bellafina, the leading 3-year-old filly in California, won the $200,000 Las Virgenes Stakes by three-quarters of a length over Enaya Alrabb. Bellafina ($2.20) led by 1 1/2 lengths with a furlong remaining.

“She had to dig in,” Callaghan said.

Owned by Kaleem Shah, Bellafina is not expected to start again until the Grade 1 Santa Anita Oaks at 1 1/16 miles on April 6. Bellafina won her first start of 2019 in the Grade 2 Santa Ynez Stakes at seven furlongs by 8 1/2 lengths on Jan. 6.

Callaghan, 35, had two stakes wins on the same day last May – with American Gal in the Grade 1 Humana Distaff at Churchill Downs and Treasuring in the Grade 3 Senorita Stakes at Santa Anita.

Bellafina is likely to face Enaya Alrabb in the $400,000 Santa Anita Oaks. Trainer Doug O’Neill said Sunday that Enaya Alrabb is unlikely to start again until the Santa Anita Oaks.