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Bob Baffert holds a strong three-card hand in Friday's Grade III, $100,000 Chillingworth Stakes at Santa Anita, with his streaking 4-year-old Qahira, who is in search of her fourth consecutive win, rating top billing among a field of seven fillies and mares three and up going 6 ½ furlongs.

Due to air quality concerns resulting from the Bobcat Fire in the nearby San Gabriel Mountains, Santa Anita's 2020 Autumn Meet, originally scheduled to begin on Sept. 19, will instead open this Friday, with both the Grade III Chillingworth and the Grade II Eddie D Stakes headlining a 10-race card.

Baffert will also be well represented by classy Quality Response, a restricted stakes winner at two who will be making her second start of the year on Friday and by recent restricted stakes winner Message, a 4-year-old filly that will be shortening up out of four consecutive routes.

Richard Mandella's Amuse, most recently second in the Grade III Rancho Bernardo Handicap going 6 ½ furlongs, seeks her first graded stakes win at age five and rates a solid chance.

Formerly run as the LA Woman Stakes, the Chillingworth honors the memory of longtime Oak Tree Racing Association Executive Vice President Sherwood Chillingworth, who passed away in October, 2019 at the age of 93.

QAHIRA

Owner: Baoma Corporation

Trainer: Bob Baffert

A winner of four out of her six career starts, Qahira, who dominated her competition by taking a 6 ½ furlong classified allowance by three lengths on Aug. 16 at Del Mar, will be making her second start of the year and will also be trying stakes competition for the first time. Although ridden last time by Abel Cedillo, top eastern rider Luis Saez, who comes to town primarily to ride Maximum Security for Baffert in Saturday's Grade I Awesome Again, will be aboard for the first time. Dating back to her 4 ¾ length first-out maiden romp on Nov. 25, 2018, she has dominated her competition by a combined 13 ¼ lengths in her four victories. With speed to spare and Saez aloft, Qahira is the horse to beat in the Chillingworth.

QUALITY RESPONSE

Owner: Mike Pegram, Karl Watson & Paul Weitman

Trainer: Bob Baffert

A winner of her first two starts in September of last year by a combined 12 ¾ lengths, this daughter of Quality Road was subsequently dispatched at 7-2 in the Grade I Frizette Stakes going a one turn mile at Belmont Park on Oct. 6, 2019, but finished a well beaten last and did not resurface prior to running a respectable fourth, beaten 3 ¼ lengths in second condition allowance going 5 ½ furlongs on Sept. 6 at Del Mar. With a recent race under her belt, look for big improvement.

AMUSE

Owner: Claiborne Farm, Ramona Bass, Perry Bass & Adele Dilschneider

Trainer: Richard Mandella

A game second when beaten 3 ¾ lengths in the Grade III Rancho Bernardo on Aug. 21, this 5-year-old mare by Medaglia d'Oro, who has two wins from nine starts, will be making her fifth start of the year and with two wins from three lifetime starts at Santa Anita, rates a solid chance.

THE GRADE III CHILLINGWORTH, WITH JOCKEYS & WEIGHTS IN POST POSITION ORDER

Race 6 of 10 Approximate post time 3 p.m. PT

Message – Flavien Prat- 124
Qahira – Luis Saez – 124
Into Chocolate – Umberto Rispoli – 124
Mucho Amor – Juan Hernandez – 124
Hang a Star – Tyler Baze – 122
Unique Factor – Heriberto Figueroa – 124
Amuse – Drayden Van Dyke – 122

First post time for a 10-race program on Friday is at 12:30 p.m. For additional information, please visit santaanita.com or call (626) 574-RACE.

The post Baffert-Trained Trio Tops Friday’s Chillingworth Stakes On Opening Day At Santa Anita appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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The dead-heat for the win between Proud Emma and Message in Friday's Tranquility Lake was the first in a stakes event at Del Mar in nearly a half-century and only the third all-time at the seaside track near San Diego, Calif.

The first such occurrence was in the 1968 Del Mar Derby, when Prince Hemp and Glory Hallelujah couldn't be separated by the photo-finish camera. The most “recent” was in the second division of the 1973 Rancho Bernardo when the co-winners were Dollar Discount and D.B. Carm.

The dead-heat victory in a stakes was the first for Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert, who has been winning them at Del Mar, and lots of other Thoroughbred places, for over three decades.

It was also a first, and a double-dip benefit for jockey Flavien Prat, aboard Message for Baffert. Peter Miller trains Proud Emma, who was ridden by Mike Smith.

It was the 11^th stakes win of the meeting for Prat, two short of the track's single-season record for jockeys with eight more black-type events on the calendar. It also moved Prat back into a tie with Umberto Rispoli atop the rider standings with 36 wins each.

The post Del Mar Rarity: Tranquility Lake Dead-Heat First In Stakes Since 1973 appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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