Will Then deemed ready to begin comeback in China Doll
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ARCADIA, Calif. – Vacation’s over for Will Then, the blaze-faced filly with four stockings who launches her 3-year-old campaign on Sunday in the $100,000 China Doll Stakes at Santa Anita.
Two weeks and two works after she was scratched from a comeback race against colts and geldings, the colorful Will Then is ready to fire for trainer Jonathan Thomas. If the Grade 3 winner picks up where she left off, the China Doll is hers for the taking.
Will Then is making her first start since Nov. 30, when she blew past Casalu for a decisive win in the Jimmy Durante Stakes at Del Mar in her third start. Casalu flattered the race by subsequently winning two stakes and will take another crack at Will Then on Sunday.
Will Then and Casalu are the top contenders in the China Doll, a turf mile with just five entrants including California-bred stakes winners Tequilaandtherapy and Take Another Card, and allowance winner Amorita.
Owned and bred by George Strawbridge, Will Then’s winter workouts were interrupted by illness. But with spring approaching, it was time to get her started. Thomas entered Will Then against colts in the Pasadena Stakes on March 9 at Santa Anita. Thomas and assistant Chelsie Raabe reconsidered, and scratched Will Then to wait for the China Doll.
“We just felt like, in the end, she just wasn’t quite ready to run,” Raabe said. “And since then, we worked her twice and she had an absolutely beautiful work [March 15]. Now it seems like she’s ready to run. Now she’s the horse we were looking for.”
The challenge for Will Then, whose rider is Umberto Rispoli, is to deliver a top effort while racing for the first time in nearly four months. Will Then, a late-runner by Will Take Charge, has won two of three starts and is the class of the China Doll field.
Casalu is the most accomplished. Bob Baffert trains the 3-for-8 filly, who followed her runner-up finish in the Jimmy Durante by winning back-to-back turf stakes at Santa Anita. Casalu won the Blue Norther, a mile stakes Dec. 28, and the Sweet Life, a hillside sprint on Feb. 9. Flavien Prat rides Casalu, who will try to become the first horse this meet to win three stakes.
Besides her California-bred stakes win, Tequilaandtherapy finished third in the Sweet Life, three lengths behind Casalu. Trainer Doug O’Neill believes she is better than her last-out fourth in an allowance. “I think I might have run her back a little quick,” O’Neill said, citing the 12-day turnaround.
It’s now been a month, and the diminutive Tequilaandtherapy will deliver a closing kick under Edwin Maldonado. O’Neill described 2-for-10 Tequilaandtherapy as “a tiny filly, she’s like a little Megahertz, but just tough as nails.”
Due to the small field and limited wagering appeal, the China Doll is early, race 3 on Sunday. The most probable winner on the card runs in race 5. King of Clubs faces California-bred allowance runners after a sparkling maiden victory. Mark Glatt trains King of Clubs, whose rider is Prat.
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