Velvet Mesquite to target Sen. Maddy Stakes

ARCADIA, Calif. – Velvet Mesquite, who won her first stakes in the $101,250 California Distaff Handicap last Saturday at Santa Anita, may shoot for a more prestigious prize in the $100,000 Sen. Ken Maddy Stakes on Nov. 1.

Trainer Blake Heap said Wednesday that he would like to try Velvet Mesquite in the Grade 3 Maddy to gain another start on a surface that the filly has proven to like.

“She seemed like she handled this race pretty good,” Heap said.

Heap said the Maddy Stakes has further appeal because it is the last turf sprint at Santa Anita until the track’s winter meeting opens Dec. 26. Heap said he would prefer to run Velvet Mesquite at Santa Anita than at Del Mar or Los Alamitos in the coming months.

Owned and bred by Harris Farms, Velvet Mesquite, a 4-year-old filly by In Excess, has won 5 of 9 starts and earned $240,606. Velvet Mesquite made her stakes debut in the California Distaff Handicap for statebred fillies and mares. Saturday’s race was her first start since a sixth-place finish in an optional claimer over six furlongs on the Polytrack synthetic surface at Del Mar on July 17.

Heap said he does not measure his horses but estimated Velvet Mesquite to stand 17 hands.

“I don’t know if she’s 17 hands, but she’s close,” Heap said. “She’s gotten stronger and bigger.”

◗ There are stakes on the hillside turf course this weekend. On Saturday, the $100,000 California Flag Handicap will be run for statebreds, while Sunday’s main race is the $75,000 Uniformity Stakes for 3-year-olds.

French stakes winner Daraybi is expected to make his U.S. debut in the Uniformity Stakes. The colt, by Street Cry, was recently acquired by Jed and Roberta Cohen’s Red Baron’s Barn and turned over to Darrell Vienna. Daraybi won the Pix Marchand d’Or over about 6 1/2 furlongs on turf at Maisons-Laffitte in France in June.