Wake Up Maggie prepping in Redondo Beach

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Wake Up Maggie's win in the restricted Long Beach Stakes on May 14 has left trainer Julio Canani with the expectations of a big summer.

Canani has entered Wake Up Maggie in Saturday's $75,000 Redondo Beach Stakes at Hollywood Park with the intent of using the race as a prep for the $750,000 CashCall Mile on turf on July 5.

Canani is confident that Wake Up Maggie will win the Redondo Beach, which is run over a mile on turf for fillies and mares that have not won a Grade 1 or Grade 2 race at a mile or over this year.

Canani said that Wake Up Maggie should be trying for her third consecutive win in the Redondo Beach. He thinks she should have won her race before the Long Beach, the Grade 3 Las Cienegas Handicap at Santa Anita on April 13, which was her U.S. debut. Wake Up Maggie was carried out in early stretch of the Las Cienegas and finished third, but was promoted to second after the disqualification of winner Bahama Mama.

"She didn't run bad," Canani said. "It was the trip."

A two-time group stakes winner in England last year, Wake Up Maggie has drawn the outside post of 10 in the Redondo Beach, the ninth race of an 11-race program that features four stakes. The wide draw may be beneficial. There are several fillies and mares that have speed, which is likely to allow jockey Joe Talamo to tuck in behind them and save ground aboard Wake Up Maggie.

Eight of Wake Up Maggie's rivals finished in the first three in their last start, including Tutta Bella, the winner of the Fran's Valentine Stakes for statebred females on April 27; La Tee, third in the Grade 3 Wilshire Handicap on April 23; and Unspoken Word and Greetings, the second- and third-place finishers in the Mother's Day Handicap at Bay Meadows last month.

Green Lyons will add blinkers. A stakes winner in France last year now trained by Neil Drysdale, Green Lyons won her U.S. debut at Santa Anita on April 10, and was third, beaten a neck, in an optional claimer on May 4. The first two finishers of that race - Fleet Caroline and Passified - are part of the Redondo Beach field.

Gotta Have Her wins off long layoff

Gotta Have Her made a successful return to racing after a layoff of nearly seven months in an allowance race on Wednesday, a race that trainer Jenine Sahadi said was a prep for a graded stakes.

Ridden by Richard Migliore, Gotta Have Her rallied from fifth in a field of six to win by 1 3/4 lengths over Cee Stone, finishing a mile on turf in 1:34.31.

The win was all the more remarkable considering that Gotta Have Her was diagnosed with pneumonia last November, after finishing ninth in the Grade 2 Mrs. Revere Stakes at Churchill Downs.

"We dodged a bullet and got on it right away," Sahadi said. "She's come back really well. We had a clean set of X-rays before we turned her out."

Sahadi was impressed that Gotta Have Her stayed off the pace for much of the race. Last year, she led throughout the Harold Ramser Handicap at the Oak Tree at Santa Anita meeting, her only stakes win in 11 starts.

"I told Richie, 'I'm not fit enough to go head and head,'" Sahadi said. "She'd been working out of her mind, finishing really well and going off easy."

Sahadi said the $400,000 John Mabee Handicap at Del Mar on Aug.o3 is a long-term goal.

Baze marries

Jockey Michael Baze married the former Kelly Monahan in a ceremony before approximately 75 friends and family at the Treasure Island Casino in Las Vegas on Monday.

Baze, 21, and Monahan met when Baze was riding in New Jersey.