Vale Dori seeks fifth-straight stakes win in Adoration

ARCADIA, Calif. - Vale Dori, the winner of four consecutive graded stakes since early December, is scheduled to start in the Grade 3 Adoration Stakes at Santa Anita on May 7, trainer Bob Baffert said.

Vale Dori worked five furlongs in 1:00.80 at Santa Anita on Sunday, her first work since a six-furlong work in 1:12 on April 19. Baffert said the $100,000 Adoration Stakes at 1 1/16 miles was preferred to stakes at Churchill Downs.

“I was going to ship her, but she likes this track,” Baffert said. “I’m not sure how she would have shipped to Kentucky. The track there can be demanding."

Owned by Sheikh Mohammed bin Khalifa al Maktoum of Dubai, Vale Dori has won 8 of 13 starts and has earned $934,943. A 5-year-old Argentine-bred mare by Asiatic Boy, Vale Dori has been in peak form this year, winning the Grade 2 La Canada Stakes in January, Grade 2 Santa Maria Stakes in February, and the Grade 1 Santa Margarita Stakes on March 18 in her latest start.

Last fall, Vale Dori won an optional claimer at Santa Anita in October and the Grade 2 Bayakoa Stakes at Del Mar, the first race of her current stakes winning streak.

The Adoration is a prep for the Grade 1 Beholder Mile on June 3.