Venetian Harbor Entered for 2021 Debut in Monrovia

After securing a grade 2 win and finishing second in a pair of grade 1 races last season, Venetian Harbor  is scheduled to make her 4-year-old season debut in the $200,000 Monrovia Stakes (G2T) June 5 at Santa Anita Park.

The 6 1/2-furlong turf race for fillies and mares has attracted eight entries. Ciaglia Racing, Highland Yard, River Oak Farm, and Domenic Savides' Venetian Harbor is the most accomplished runner in Saturday's field but she will try to win off an extended layoff and will be racing on turf for the first time since a runner-up finish in 2019 in her maiden debut.

Racing exclusively on dirt last season, Venetian Harbor proved to be one of the top 3-year-old filly sprinters in the country as she won the Lexus Raven Run Stakes (G2). That victory at Keeneland over other fillies from her generation followed runner-up finishes in the Central Bank Ashland Stakes (G1), going two turns at Keeneland; and the seven-furlong Longines Test Stakes (G1) at Saratoga Race Course, where she finished behind eventual champion Gamine .

Trained by Richard Baltas, the daughter of Munnings   has finished first or second in seven of her eight starts and has earned $513,400. This will be Venetian Harbor's first race since her lone off-the-board finish in her career in the Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint (G1) Nov. 7 at Keeneland.

Baltas also has entered Nasty , who will be competing on her preferred surface in the Monrovia but, like her stablemate, will be making her 2021 debut. LNJ Foxwoods' Nasty has not raced since securing her first stakes win in her final start of 2020, a narrow score in the one-mile Lady of Shamrock Stakes Dec. 26 on the turf at Santa Anita.

Nasty, with new rider Trevor McCarthy up, will start from the inside in Saturday's field. McCarthy, a new arrival in Southern California, notched his first Santa Anita win May 31 at 6 1/2 furlongs on turf.

While the Baltas' pair enter off layoffs, trainer John Sadler will send out Constantia  off a clear victory in the six-furlong Mizdirection Stakes April 17 on the Santa Anita turf. That victory marked the first stakes win for Keith Abrahams' homebred Constantia, who, like Venetian Harbor, is a daughter of Munnings.

Starting from the outside Saturday will be Superstition , a stakes winner this year at the trip. After opening the year in January with a third-place finish in the Las Cienegas Stakes (G3T) at six furlongs on the turf, Superstition won the Wishing Well Stakes at 6 1/2 furlongs on the turf in February. The Wishing Well was restricted to horses that had not won a graded stakes since July 1, 2020.

Superstition enters Saturday's race off a runner-up finish to Constantia in the Mizdirection but she defeated that rival in the Wishing Well.

Entries: Monrovia S. (G2T)

Santa Anita Park, Saturday, June 05, 2021, Race 7

• Grade IIT
• 6 1/2f
• Turf
• $200,000
• 3 yo's & up Fillies and Mares
• 4:52 PM (local)

PP	Horse	Jockey	Wgt	Trainer	M/L
1	1Nasty (KY)	Trevor McCarthy	122	Richard Baltas	5/1
2	2Never for Money (CA)	Geovanni Franco	122	Andy Mathis	20/1
3	3Constantia (KY)	UMBERTO RISPOLI	122	John W. Sadler	7/2
4	4Gypsy Spirit (GB)	Edwin A. Maldonado	122	Leonard Powell	12/1
5	5Trickle In (KY)	Tyler Baze	122	Dan Blacker	50/1
6	6She's So Special (KY)	Juan J. Hernandez	122	Peter Miller	6/1
7	7Venetian Harbor (KY)	Mario Gutierrez	124	Richard Baltas	9/5
8	8Superstition (KY)	Abel Cedillo	122	Richard E. Mandella	5/2