Consistent Arles Eyes Elusive Graded Stakes Win

To this point Arles would be in the argument of most-accomplished horse in training without a group or graded stakes win, but the consistent 4-year-old Monsun filly will take another crack at adding that elusive prize to her list of accomplishments Dec. 31 at Santa Anita Park.

Team Valor International and Green Lantern Stables' Arles drew post 4 in Saturday's $100,000 Robert J. Frankel Stakes (gr. IIIT). The 1 1/8-mile race for fillies and mares on the Santa Anita turf has attracted nine entries.

Arles finished second in her first two starts in North America, both grade III tests on turf. In her United States debut she finished second to Suffused in the Glens Falls Stakes Sept. 3 at Saratoga Race Course before again securing runner-up honors in the Red Carpet Handicap Nov. 24 at Del Mar. 

In the Red Carpet, Arles just missed that elusive first graded stakes score when she finished a nose behind Nuovo Record. Nuovo Record, who finished out of the money in the Nov. 5 Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf (gr. IT), went on to finish fourth in the Longines Hong Kong Vase (HK-I) Dec. 11.

Arles won a stakes race in Germany and placed in five other stakes there, including a runner-up finish in last year's Diana-Trial (Ger-II). She has earned a placing in 10 of her 11 career starts in France, Germany, and the U.S.

While Arles will be making her third U.S. start in the Frankel, Hronis Racing's Sweet Charity is set for her North American debut after six starts in France where she earned a placing in five of those efforts. Now trained by John Sadler, Sweet Charity will try to extend a two-race win streak that saw her earn a maiden victory July 19 at Compiegne before earning a clear victory in the Prix de Liancourt Sept. 1 at Chantilly.

Sweet Charity will start from the inside and jockey Mike Smith is scheduled to ride. The 3-year-old daughter of Myboycharlie is scheduled to receive race-day Lasix for the first time.

Mr. and Mrs. Jerome Moss' Keri Belle is one of two Kentucky-breds entered, and the Empire Maker   filly comes into the race off a runner up finish in the Nov. 11 Kathryn Crosby Stakes at Del Mar, a drop in class from her previous seven races. Among those seven starts she had won the Megahertz Stakes (gr. IIIT) in January and went on to place third in the Feb. 20 Buena Vista Stakes (gr. IIT). She also placed fourth in both the May 30 Gamely Stakes and the Oct. 1 Rodeo Drive Stakes (both gr. IT).