Kentucky Oaks Points up for Grabs in Santa Ysabel

While the apparent top 3-year-old filly in California, Venetian Harbor, awaits an April return—either in the Santa Anita Oaks (G2) or Central Bank Ashland Stakes (G1)—six other hopefuls for the May 1 Longines Kentucky Oaks (G1) are in the limelight in the $100,000 Santa Ysabel Stakes (G3) at Santa Anita Park March 8, led by Donna Veloce.

Well, potentially six. Donna Veloce, the 4-5 morning-line favorite, is not sure to start as trainer Simon Callaghan and her owners weigh whether to have her remain in the field or scratch and await the $200,000 Sunland Park Oaks in New Mexico March 22 at Sunland Park. Both races are 1 1/16 miles and provide 85 qualifying points toward the Kentucky Oaks to the race's top four finishers on a 50-20-10-5 basis.

The Sunland Park Oaks would provide a richer purse and more preparation time for the Uncle Mo  filly, who has been breezing for a little more than a month since a winter break. The Santa Ysabel, on the other hand, would be a home game, coming on a track where she won a Sept. 28 maiden race by 9 1/4 lengths before running second to British Idiom in the Nov. 1 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1).

She closed the year with another close runner-up finish, a half-length behind the now-retired Bast in the Dec. 7 Los Alamitos Starlet Stakes (G1) at Los Alamitos Race Course.

Video: Starlet S. (G1)

"She's been moving right along the last few months. She did well with the break and seems to be doing good," Callaghan said.

He called her "probable" to run Sunday, with a final decision expected Saturday after consultation with owners Kaleem Shah, Susan Magnier, Michael Tabor, and Derrick Smith.

Flavien Prat, aboard for all three of her starts, has been named to ride.

Callaghan has another filly in the race in Paige Anne, a daughter of Take Charge Indy  who has won two in a row after losing her first four starts. She won a maiden race by a head at Los Alamitos Dec. 15 and followed that with a six-length romp in a Jan. 17 allowance optional claimer at Golden Gate Fields on the synthetic Tapeta surface.

"She deserves a chance against these better fillies. She's improving," Callaghan said.

Umberto Rispoli will ride the filly owned by Elie and Lori Feghali and Mark Mathiesen.

Also coming off an allowance-level win at Golden Gate is Tiz Fake News, who is perfect in two starts in Northern California in frontrunning fashion for trainer Jonathan Wong and owner Tommy Town Thoroughbreds. She and Paige Anne are the only dual winners in the lineup.

Scratched early from an initial group of seven for the Santa Ysabel was Gingham, who ran second behind Venetian Harbor in the Las Virgenes Stakes (G2) for trainer Bob Baffert. Baffert is still represented in the race by Storie Blue, a narrow maiden winner going a mile at Santa Anita Jan. 5.

The other two entrants stretch out from sprints: Speech, second in a fast allowance optional claimer Feb. 1, and Gidgetta, a second-out maiden winner Jan. 20.

"I think she wants to go a little bit longer," trainer Richard Baltas said of Gidgetta. "She's got a lot of ability."

The Fast Anna  filly is owned by sports talk radio host Jim Rome, who races under the stable name of Jungle Racing.

Entries: Santa Ysabel S. (G3)

Santa Anita Park, Sunday, March 08, 2020, Race 7

• Grade III
• 1 1/16m
• Dirt
• $100,000
• 3 yo Fillies
• 4:11 PM (local)

PP	Horse	Jockey	Wgt	Trainer	M/L
1	1Donna Veloce (KY)	Flavien Prat	120	Simon Callaghan	4/5
2	2Gidgetta (KY)	Joel Rosario	120	Richard Baltas	5/1
3	3Speech (FL)	Geovanni Franco	120	Michael W. McCarthy	4/1
4	4Tiz Fake News (KY)	Abel Cedillo	122	Jonathan Wong	6/1
98	5Gingham (KY)	SCRATCHED	0	UNKNOWN	-
5	6Paige Anne (KY)	UMBERTO RISPOLI	122	Simon Callaghan	8/1
6	7Storie Blue (KY)	Drayden Van Dyke	120	Bob Baffert	8/1