Adare Manor Heads Santa Maria Stakes (G2)

Adare Manor , winner of the Las Virgenes (G3) last year at 3, is the anticipated favorite for the April 29 $200,000 Santa Maria Stakes (G2) at Santa Anita Park. 

The Uncle Mo   filly got her first win as a 4-year-old leading gate to wire in a one-mile March 31 allowance race. In between the Las Virgenes and her last-out win, Adare Manor had a pair of high-profile grade 2 placings—a game second in the Santa Anita Oaks and a clear runner-up finish in the Black-Eyed Susan at Pimlico Race Course. A disappointing sixth in the Cotillion (G1) at Parx Racing led to her getting the rest of the season off. 

"She came back (from Parx) and was just tired," Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert said. "These horses sometimes they go through a phase where they just lose interest. So I freshened her up, turned her out, and gave her some time."

Baffert said prior to the allowance score that he expected Adare Manor to compete in "all the big races in the summer."

Baffert has won two of the last three runnings of the Santa Maria, with As Time Goes By (2021) and Fighting Mad (2020). 

While Adare Manor will employ speed to her advantage, the six-horse field's other graded stakes winner, Kirstenbosch , will wait to make one big run. Trained by John Sadler, the Midnight Lute   filly won January's La Canada (G3) at the Santa Maria distance of 1 1/16 miles. She cut back for the Beholder Mile (G1), in which she ran fifth, and an off-the-turf rendition of the 6 ½-furlong Monrovia Stakes (G3), where she was third. All three of her wins have come at two turns. 

Sadler also trains Big Switch , a California-bred Mr. Big   filly who dueled with Adare Manor in her March allowance race but could not get by, finishing a game second by a head. Breaking from just outside of Adare Manor, in post 3, Joe Bravo will likely be hounding the favorite right from the start.     

Bellamore , trained by Simon Callaghan, is grade 1-placed on turf as a result of a good third-place effort in last fall's Rodeo Drive at Santa Anita. The 5-year-old Empire Maker  mare is still seeking her first win on traditional dirt but finished last year earning a nice check when second to Played Hard  in the $500,000 Falls City Stakes (G3) at Churchill Downs. 

The Santa Maria field is rounded out by black-type-seeking veterans Smoothlikebuttah , consistently in the money in $40,000-$50,000 allowance optional claiming events, and Mongolian Panther , making her stakes debut off a second in a starter allowance.