Connections Hope Five G Up to Speed in La Brea

In her first start since winning the Gulfstream Park Oaks (G2) in late March, Five G  will try to secure the first grade 1 win of her career when she closes out her 3-year-old season in the $300,000 La Brea Stakes (G1) Dec. 28 at Santa Anita Park.

The 7-furlong test for 3-year-old fillies provides a prime opportunity as Five G is the lone graded stakes winner among the 11 runners entered.

A homebred for Gatsas Stables, Five G will try to secure her third stakes win of the season Sunday at Santa Anita. The daughter of Vekoma   earned a maiden win at 2 going 1 1/16 miles on the turf at Aqueduct Racetrack, and this year opened her 3-year-old campaign with a 9-length romp in the Cash Run Stakes on the dirt Jan. 1 at Gulfstream Park. 

Trained by George Weaver, Five G followed with a runner-up finish to Quietside  in the Honeybee Stakes (G3) at Oaklawn Park before her front-running score by 2 1/4 lengths in the Gulfstream Park Oaks. One day before the Kentucky Oaks (G1), Weaver scratched Five G from that planned start.

New York-bred Five G will try the 7-furlong distance for the first time in her career Sunday, but she did impress in the Cash Run at the one-turn mile at Gulfstream. Five G returned to serious training with a half-mile breeze in :48.45 in late October on the Oklahoma Training Track at Saratoga Race Course, earning the bullet among 24 workers. She followed with four moves at Palm Beach Downs and, for good measure, worked 4 furlongs on the Santa Anita surface Dec. 19.

Five G is scheduled to start from post 3 Sunday, with a pair of graded stakes-placed runners inside her in Simply Joking  at the rail and So There She Was  in post 2. While Five G finished second to Quietside in February, Simply Joking finished as a runner-up to that filly when three-quarters of a length back in the Fantasy Stakes (G2) in March. Trained by Michael McCarthy, Simply Joking will enter off a previous start in Southern California as the daughter of Practical Joke   finished second in the Bayakoa Stakes (G3) Nov. 30 at Del Mar.

Trained by Doug O’Neill, So There She Was earned a grade 1 placing at 2 when third in the Del Mar Debutante Stakes (G1). This year, the daughter of Munnings   added a runner-up finish in the Torrey Pines Stakes (G3) and a win in the Remington Park Oaks.

Owner/breeder Spendthrift Farm will look for a La Brea repeat as Magnificat  is scheduled to make her stakes debut off of narrow victories in a maiden race going 6 furlongs at Santa Anita and a 6 1/2-furlong allowance optional claiming race at Del Mar. Spendthrift captured last year’s La Brea with Kopion , who scored at 37-1 that day but proved no fluke as she followed with wins in the Santa Monica Stakes (G2) at Santa Anita and Derby City Distaff Stakes (G1) at Churchill Downs.

Like Kopion, Magnificat is trained by Richard Mandella and is a daughter of Omaha Beach  .