First Graded Stakes Up for Grabs in Senorita

A field of nine 3-year-old fillies will seek their first graded stakes victory in the $100,000 Senorita Stakes (gr. IIIT) June 27 at Santa Anita Park.

The Senorita will kick off a slate of four consecutive graded stakes on the Saturday card on Santa Anita's closing weekend, which includes the $500,000 Gold Cup (gr. I).

The most highly regarded filly in the field appears to be Warren Williamson's Curlin's Fox, a stakes-placed daughter of Curlin   who beat winners for the first time in a 4 1/4-length allowance/optional claiming event on Santa Anita's downhill turf course May 25. Trained by Carla Gaines, Curlin's Fox is two-for-two going down the hill (where she also broke her maiden), but was second in the China Doll Stakes March 7 in her first try at a mile on the turf, the same distance as the Senorita. In between, she was fourth to Stellar Wind over dirt in the Santa Anita Oaks (gr. I).

Stakes winners Long Hot Summer, Lutine Belle, and Avenge are also entered.

Avenge, owned by Ramona Bass, is on a three-race winning streak, including the Utrafleet Stakes down the Santa Anita hill May 1.

Stakes-placed Mio Me, allowance winners Rattataptap, Screaming Skylar, and Prize Exhibit, along with maiden winner Miss Double d'Oro, round out the field.