Michael Lund Petersen's 3-year-old filly Faiza remained undefeated after five starts but will not be headed to the Kentucky Oaks despite her victory on Saturday in the Grade 2 Santa Anita Oaks under Flavien Prat.
Trained by Bob Baffert, who is ineligible to compete in this year's Kentucky Derby or Oaks due to a ban by Churchill Downs management over his medication violations, Faiza did not earn the 100 Kentucky Oaks qualifying points offered in the Santa Anita Oaks.
The Girvin filly was 6 1/2 lengths clear at the wire, covering 1 1/16 miles in 1:43.27. Grade 1 winner And Tell Me Nolies finished second, earning 40 Kentucky Oaks points. Window Shopping finished another half length back in third, Clearly Unhinged was fourth and Venganza fifth in the field of eight sophomore fillies. Princess Bettina was scratched. The third through fifth finishers earned 30, 20, and 10 points, respectively.
Updated Kentucky Derby/Oaks Leaderboards
Faiza paid $3.60 to win as the 4-5 favorite.
Bred in Kentucky by Brereton C. Jones, Petersen acquired Faiza for $725,000 at the 2022 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Sale of 2-year-olds in training. She previously sold for $90,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky July Yearling Sale.
Faiza came into the Santa Anita Oaks after four victories without a defeat. The first came in a maiden race at Del Mar in November, followed by a narrow score in the G1 Starlet Stakes at Los Alamitos in December. She continued her unbeaten string with victories in the G3 Las Virgenes Stakes in January and the G3 Santa Ysabel on March 5.
And Tell Me Nolies was the only other graded stakes winner in the field, but she was 6-1 fourth choice behind Faiza, Michael McCarthy-trained Clearly Unhinged (a sharp maiden winner) was 5-2, and Richard Mandella-trained Window Shopping, who broke her maiden by 16 1/2 lengths March 17, was 5-1.
Longshot Gila set the pace, going the opening quarter mile in :22.49 and the half in :46.01 while opening a wide lead down the backstretch. She suddenly started backing up approaching the far turn, causing several horses behind her to check and lose their momentum.
Clearly Unhinged and Faiza were tracking the pacesetter and went around her after six furlongs in 1:11.25, and it appeared it would be a race to the wire between those two. But Faiza put away Clearly Unhinged at the top of the stretch and drew off to an impressive victory.
“She keeps improving race after race,” said Prat. “Baffert and I felt she was going to have a good run today, and she absolutely did! She jumped well out of the gate and got into a good position, and from there got the job done.”
And Tell Me Nolies avoided the trouble approaching the far turn and rallied for second, with Window Shopping – who did have to steady approaching the far turn – getting the show.
“She was really feeling it today,” Baffert said of Faiza. “I could tell, she's been really quiet and today she was on her toes. She was coming into the race perfectly. The track today is fast and they are just bouncing over it. I worked her on this kind of track and it was probably one of her best works ever. She's getting better and better and improving. Prat has always told me she does just enough to get by, I told him she would do more today. I've never seen her so sharp. Michael Lund has been a great supporter of mine. We had Gamine and he's gotten spoiled now with Faiza. It's good to have her in the mix.”
This was Baffert's third Santa Anita Oaks victory and his first since Composure in 2004. Prat has won the Oaks four times – all since 2017.
Petersen lives in the Baltimore area, so it would not be a surprise to see Faiza shows up for the G2 Black-Eyed Susan Stakes at Pimlico May 19.
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