Union Strike will skip Chandelier to await Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies
Union Strike, the winner of the Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante on Sept. 3 in her stakes debut, will not start in the $300,000 Chandelier Stakes at Santa Anita on Oct. 1, but remains an intended starter for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies on Nov. 5, owner Mick Ruis said on Wednesday.
Ruis said Union Strike had “a little bit of shins” before the Debutante, but has recovered since the seven-furlong race for 2-year-old fillies. She has been jogging in recent days, and was scheduled to begin galloping on Thursday at Santa Anita.
“We’ll take the time and do what is right,” he said from his home in Montana. “We’ll train her up to the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies. She had a little bit of shins going into the Debutante. We know she can run and know she is fit.
“I don’t want to run in the Chandelier and the Breeders’ Cup. She’s just a growing 2-year-old and I want to be cautious with her.”
Union Strike is trained by Ruis’s daughter Shelbe.
Union Strike, by Union Rags, is 1 for 2 and has earnings of $192,600. She was second to American Cleopatra in her debut in a maiden race at Del Mar on July 31.
American Cleopatra, a full sister to 2015 Triple Crown winner and Horse of the Year American Pharoah, worked five furlongs in company with stablemate Noted and Quoted in 59.80 seconds at Santa Anita on Wednesday.
American Cleopatra and Noted and Quoted were second and fourth in the Del Mar Debutante, and are candidates for the Chandelier, trainer Bob Baffert said.
Ruis and his wife, Wendy, have several stakes prospects for the opening weeks of the Santa Anita autumn meeting, which begins on Sept. 30.
War Envoy is being pointed for the $100,000 Eddie D Stakes on the hillside turf course on Sept. 30, Midnight Pleasure will start in the $300,000 FrontRunner Stakes for 2-year-olds at 1 1/16 miles on Oct. 1, and Lady Beware is a candidate for the $100,000 Surfer Girl Stakes for 2-year-old fillies at a mile on turf on Oct. 10.
Shelbe Ruis trains those horses.