Nothing Like You, Kinza, Kopion Battle in Las Virgenes

Several dazzling last-out winners square off in the $100,000 Las Virgenes Stakes (G3) Feb. 10 at Santa Anita Park. With Kentucky Oaks (G1) points on the line for eligible horses, the one-mile contest for 3-year-old fillies promises to be one fast and furious race to the wire.

Victorious in her last three starts, 2023 Starlet Stakes (G2) heroine Nothing Like You  makes her sophomore debut in the Las Virgenes for owners Georgia Antley Hunt, Jeff Giglio, and John Rogitz. The Bob Baffert pupil has already twice conquered distances over a mile, giving her an advantage over her lightly raced counterpart, Kopion . A 6 1/2-length winner going a mile at Santa Anita Park in her fourth start, Nothing Like You, a Malibu Moon filly, added the 1 1/16-mile Starlet to her resume two starts later by an emphatic 5 1/4 lengths.

International riding star Frankie Dettori rides.

Baffert will also saddle Michael Lund Petersen's impressive debut victress Kinza . A Carpe Diem   filly, she blitzed six furlongs in 1:09.79 in her lone start. 

Breaking from post four of five, Spendthrift Farm's Kopion has won her two starts by a combined 9 1/2 lengths. The Richard Mandella-trained filly picked up 10 Kentucky Oaks (G1) points in her tour de force in the Santa Ynez Stakes (G3) Jan. 7.

Originally scheduled Feb. 4, the Las Virgenes was postponed to Saturday due to heavy rain in Southern California.