Delta Flower Goes For Four Straight in Summertime Oaks

Delta Flower wins the Rainbow Miss Stakes at Oaklawn Park. (Photo by Coady Photograpy)

The 69th running of the Grade 2, $200,000 Summertime Oaks (formerly the Hollywood Oaks) will be run for the first time at Santa Anita and features a field of eight three-year-old fillies, many on the upswing with potential to break out and earn their first graded stakes victory.

Delta Flower puts her three-race win streak, including two stakes, on the line, while Stop Smiling enters the race off a win on the turf in Northern California. Both fillies are trained by Jerry Hollendorfer who also saddles Fleet of Gold. Trainer Bob Baffert has a pair of runners in Jojo Warrior and Front Range, the former coming into the Oaks following a third place finish in the Miss Preakness Stakes last month. Live for Now and Arethusa are both trained by Eoin Harty, the latter of that pair one of just three in the field to have won a stakes, her victory coming in the Sharp Cat Stakes last fall.

Delta Flower won the Rainbow Miss Stakes in March in only the third start of her career, at Oaklawn Park in Arkansas, subsequently moving to California to the barn of Jerry Hollendorfer. Her first start for her new trainer came on May 17 at Santa Anita. It was a strong victory in the Angel's Flight Stakes in which she led from start to finish to earn a career best and field high-tying 90 Equibase Speed Figure. It doesn't look like any other horses in the field will be accompanying her on the lead in the early stages, so Delta Flower should be able to save ground on the lead from her inside post to pick up her fourth straight win and third stakes.

Live for Now is still a maiden, not having won a race yet in six career starts. However, with a career best and field high-tying 90 figure earned in her last effort, that might change in the Summertime Oaks. Live for Now is a half-sister to 2001 Preakness and Belmont Stakes winner Point Given and is just now showing signs of the ability that pedigree suggests. She earned an 82 figure on May 1 in her first-ever race on a conventional dirt surface and if she continues to improve she has a shot to post the upset in this race.

Front Range is one of only two fillies in the field to have won a two-turn race on a conventional dirt surface and the only one to have won at the distance at Santa Anita. That victory came one before her last race, on May 1, with an 87 figure that appears competitive in this field if repeated. Front Range tried turf for the first time following that victory and ran poorly, but back on the main track she has every right to return to competitive form.

The rest of the field, with their best representative Equibase Speed Figure, is Arethusa (87), Fleet of Gold (80), Jojo Warrior (89), La Mejor Fiesta (86) and Stop Smiling (87).

My Selections:
Delta FlowerLive for NowFront Range 
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$200,000 Summertime Oaks Stakes – Grade 2
Saturday, Race 8, Santa Anita, Post Time 7:30 p.m. ET
1 1/16 Miles, 3-Year-Old Fillies