Faiza Remains Undefeated with Santa Ysabel Score
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Photo: Benoit Photo
Faiza draws away in the Santa Ysabel Stakes at Santa Anita Park
Postponed or not, Michael Lund Petersen's Faiza came ready to fire. Again.
The 3-year-old daughter of second-crop sire Girvin , who had his second graded stakes winner in two days following Dorth Vader 's Davona Dale Stakes (G2) romp at Gulfstream Park March 5, kept her flawless record intact with a convincing 2 1/4-length win over And Tell Me Nolies in the March 5 $100,000 Santa Ysabel Stakes (G3).
Santa Anita Park rescheduled the Santa Ysabel from its intended Feb. 25 run date due to massive flooding and thunderstorms in the Southern California area. The 1 1/16-mile test for fillies offered 100 total points to the Kentucky Oaks (G1), 50 of them to the winner, and drew a compact but competitive field of five sophomores after the scratch of Spanning the Globe . The Santa Ysabel lured fresh contender and grade 1 winner And Tell Me Nolies, unraced since an eighth-place effort in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1) last fall. Pride of the Nile and Justique , the 2-3 finishers behind Faiza in the Jan. 28 Las Virgenes Stakes (G3), were also back to try again.
To no avail.
Breaking sharply from the outside post, jockey Flavien Prat positioned Faiza just off the front-running Blessed Touch as that one dictated the terms through moderate early fractions of :24 and :48.32. At the three-eighths pole, Prat set Faiza loose on the pacesetter and the bay picked up the tempo, racing nose and nose with Blessed Touch as the pair rolled into the stretch.
And Tell Me Nolies began her bid from mid-pack, but Faiza got the jump on her opponent, putting away a stubborn Blessed Touch in the final furlong and scooting clear to win easily.
Faiza ($3.60) stopped the timer in 1:44.66 on a fast main track.
"(Faiza) was traveling well all the way around," Prat said. "I felt the pace was quite easy, so I could get myself going around the turn and she stretched her legs down the lane really well.
“It seems like she is getting better, race after race."
And Tell Me Nolies settled for second, 1 1/4 lengths ahead of Blessed Touch in third. Justique and Pride of the Nile completed the order of finish.
“She’s got a great mind and she’s by one of the hottest sires, Girvin, who is just unbelievable,” trainer Bob Baffert said of Faiza. “His progeny (Dorth Vader) won the Davona Dale yesterday. We are just lucky to have her…”
Since horses trained by Baffert are ineligible for Kentucky Derby or Oaks points following the conditioner's two-year ban from Churchill Downs Inc., Faiza received no points with her win. And Tell Me Nolies, trained by Peter Miller, picked up 20 points for her runner-up finish, moving her into the eighth slot on the leaderboard with 30 points total. Blessed Touch, campaigned by the same connections of yesterday's San Felipe Stakes (G2) winner Practical Move , earned 15 points.
Faiza was acquired by her owner for $725,000 as a 2-year-old at last year's Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Sale from the Paul Sharp consignment. Bred in Kentucky by Brereton Jones, who stands Girvin at Airdrie Stud in Lexington, Faiza is the first stakes winner produced from the Smart Strike mare Sweet Pistol. Faiza hails from the immediate family of multiple graded stakes winners Pomeroys Pistol and Thousand Words .