Quick Will Need Stamina in Santa Anita's Astra
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Photo: BENOIT PHOTO
Owner Kosta Hronis (left) and trainer John Sadler after a 2019 stakes win at Santa Anita Park
Being quick is a virtue for any Thoroughbred, yet for a 5-year-old mare named Quick, stamina will be of the essence Jan. 17 when she faces eight rivals in the $100,000 Astra Stakes (G3T) Santa Anita Park.
Hronis Racing's daughter of Olympic Glory will be tested at a demanding 1 1/2-mile distance for the first time when trainer John Sadler stretches her out for Sunday's graded turf stakes at The Great Race Place for fillies and mares.
A winner of just one of eight starts since she moved from her native Europe and began racing in California early in 2020, the bay mare is coming off a promising third in the Nov. 26 Red Carpet Handicap (G3T) at 1 3/8 miles, when she closed from 11 lengths back to wind up third, beaten by only 1 1/2 lengths.
As consistent as the daughter of the Rock of Gibraltar mare The Giving Tree has been, she has won only three of 15 starts in her career with five seconds and three thirds.
MyRaceHorse's Altea fits into a similar mold as Quick. Though she's won only two of 24 starts, the daughter of Siyouni has eight seconds and four thirds, including four placings in grade/group 3 stakes and a fourth behind Rushing Fall in the 2020 Coolmore Jenny Wiley Stakes (G1T) while racing for trainer Chad Brown.
MyRaceHorse, which sells microshares of its runners, acquired Altea in the fall and shipped her west to trainer Michael McCarthy's barn. In her first start for new connections, she was seventh in the Dec. 27 Robert J. Frankel Stakes (G3T) at 1 1/8 miles, though she lost by only 2 3/4 lengths.
Altea will also be making her first start at a 12-furlong distance.
The Astra will provide a litmus test for Avenue de France, who will be making her first start in both a graded stakes and at a 1 1/2-mile distance. Owned by Benowitz Family Trust, Convergence Stable, Madaket Stables, Wonder Stables, and Mathilde Powell and trained by Leonard Powell, the daughter of Cityscape rallied from ninth in her last start to post a half-length victory in a Dec. 26 Santa Anita allowance race at 1 1/8 miles.
Overall in an eight-start career, she has three wins and three thirds.
Hronis Racing and Sadler will also send out Hermaphrodite, who will bring experience at 1 1/2 miles into her first United States graded stakes appearance. A daughter of Le Havre, she complied a record in Europe of a win, a second, and a third in a trio of starts at the distance.
She arrived in the United States last year and has raced twice for Hronis and Sadler, finishing fifth in a pair of allowance races.
Santa Anita Park, Sunday, January 17, 2021, Race 7Entries: Astra S. (G3T)
PP
Horse
Jockey
Wgt
Trainer
M/L
1
1Avenue de France (FR)
Drayden Van Dyke
120
Leonard Powell
6/1
2
2Miss Addie Pray (KY)
Mike E. Smith
120
Patrick Gallagher
15/1
3
3Altea (FR)
Abel Cedillo
120
Michael W. McCarthy
3/1
4
4Aunt Lubie (MD)
Victor Espinoza
120
Richard E. Mandella
8/1
5
5Hermaphrodite (FR)
Joel Rosario
120
John W. Sadler
6/1
6
6Lucky Peridot (FL)
Juan J. Hernandez
120
Peter Miller
15/1
7
7Carpe Vinum (KY)
Jose Valdivia, Jr.
120
Philip D'Amato
20/1
8
8Quick (GB)
UMBERTO RISPOLI
120
John W. Sadler
5/2
9
9Ms Peintour (KY)
Flavien Prat
122
Brian J. Koriner
4/1
