Flashy Debut Winner Kopion Tops Short Santa Ynez Field

Spendthrift Farm's Kopion , a stylish winner at first asking for trainer Richard Mandella, will make her stakes debut in a compact field of five in the Jan. 7 $100,000 Santa Ynez Stakes (G3) at Santa Anita Park.

The seven-furlong Santa Ynez is the first points race of the year for 3-year-old fillies on the Road to the Kentucky Oaks, offering qualifying points on a 10-5-3-2-1 scale.

Kopion packs all the credentials to be a stakes performer. The strapping chestnut, a $270,000 Keeneland September yearling, is a half sibling to two graded stakes winners in Ami's Flatter  and Amis Gizmo , the Sovereign Award champion 3-year-old of 2017. In her 6 1/2-furlong debut at Del Mar Nov. 26, she stalked the pace before circling four wide turning for home en route to a handy 3 3/4-length score under Flavien Prat.

“(Kopion is) a very smart, classy filly who’s always shown us a lot of ability,” Mandella said. “Her maiden win was no surprise."

Prat will be aboard the Omaha Beach   filly again in the Santa Ynez.

Kopion, the only filly in the field with only one start under her belt, will face the much more experienced Tambo , who will make her sixth start in Sunday's contest.

Tambo, trained by Peter Eurton for SAF Racing, Neil Haymes, James McCadden, and William Strauss, earned her maiden win in July before jumping into stakes competition. In her most recent outing, the daughter of Enticed   was beaten a nose by Nothing Like You  in Del Mar's Desi Arnaz Stakes Nov. 18.