With two sharp recent wins to her credit, Bob Baffert's Adare Manor looms large in Saturday's Grade 2, $200,000 Santa Margarita Stakes at Santa Anita as she faces four rival fillies and mares going a mile and one eighth over the Santa Anita main track.
Although a disappointing second as the 4-5 favorite three starts back in a classified allowance at seven furlongs, Adare Manor bounced back with a game head victory going a flat mile at the same condition on March 31, and her rousing 4 ¾ length triumph in the G2 Santa Maria at a mile and one sixteenth may've been the best race of her career.
A 4-year-old daughter of Uncle Mo out of the Giant Gizmo mare Brooklynsway, Adare Manor is owned by Michael Lund Petersen. Blessed with an abundance of natural speed, Adare Manor will be extremely tough to beat with regular rider Juan Hernandez back aboard.
A G3 stakes winner here at age three, Adare Manor has earnings of $501,600 and is 10-4-4-0 overall, with all of her wins coming on the Santa Anita main track.
Talented Arizona-bred Desert Dawn, winner of last year's G2 Santa Anita Oaks, returns from Kentucky where she finished fifth, beaten six lengths in the G1 La Troienne Stakes at a mile and one sixteenth on March 5.
A 4-year-old filly trained by Phil D'Amato and owned by her breeder, H and E Ranch, Inc., Desert Dawn has been winless in six starts since her Santa Anita Oaks score, but has been in the money in four of those starts—all graded stakes, including a third place finish in the Kentucky Oaks.
By Cupid out of the Honour and Glory mare Ashley's Glory, Desert Dawn, with regular rider Umberto Rispoli up, will hope to get a stalking trip and be able to run down the top selection late. The leading money earner in the field with $672,525, Desert Dawn is 13-2-2-4 overall.
John Sadler's Kirstenbosch, a game nose winner of the G3 La Canada four starts back, will be making her fifth start of the year as she tries to improve upon a fifth place finish behind Adare Manor in the G2 Santa Maria, a race in which Kirstenbosch bobbled at the break and was never a factor.
Ridden by the now-departed Kazushi Kimura in her last five starts, Kirstenbosch will get the first-time services of Hector Berrios, who with four stakes wins at the current Hollywood Meet, ranks second to Juan Hernandez, who has nine added money victories.
Owned and bred in Kentucky by Keith Abrahams, Kirstenbosch, a 4-year-old filly by Midnight Lute out of the Belong to Me mare Llandudno, is 13-3-3-2 with earnings $372,480.
THE 83RD GRADE II SANTA MARGARITA WITH JOCKEYS & WEIGHTS IN POST POSITION ORDER
Race 4 of 10 Approximate post time 2:30 p.m. PT
Desert Dawn – Umberto Rispoli – 122
Adare Manor – Juan Hernandez – 126
Smoothlikebuttah—Tiago Pereira—122
Tiz a Macho Girl – Kyle Frey – 122
Kirstenbosch—Hector Berrios—124
First post time for a 10-race card on Belmont Stakes Day, Saturday is at 1 p.m., with admission gates opening early at 8:00 a.m. to accommodate a tremendous undercard from Belmont Park.
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