Plein Air Takes Astra in First US Start

Plein Air's front-running victory in the $75,000 Astra Stakes at Santa Anita Park Jan. 14 marked a couple of firsts for the 5-year-old mare and her connections. 

It was the first start in the U.S. for the Irish-bred daughter of Manduro (GER), and it was the first win for her new owners. 

"This is my first horse, my first race, and now my first win. I knew that obviously Bob (Baffert) has a good team and this was just thrilling," Sunny Brook Stables' Larry Brookshire said. 

In Sunday's 1 1/2-mile listed turf stakes for fillies and mares, Plein Air broke alertly under jockey Tyler Baze and found her way to the front of the 10-horse field. With her ears pricked, she never let her competition get too close as she rolled through fractions of :23.56, :47.28, 1:12.88, and 1:38.74 for a mile. She managed to hold off a bid from Evo Campo in the stretch to win by three-quarters of a length in a final time of 2:27.34 over the firm turf. 

Lucy De was third, 1 3/4 lengths back from Evo Campo. Estrenchada (ARG) and Queen Blossom rounded out the top five. Favored How Unusual traveled four wide on the final turf and faded to seventh. 

“This horse came to me through John Asher, who I’ve known forever. He said he found this nice filly in Italy and she goes a mile and a half and luckily, I don’t have any horses in that division," Baffert said. 

“We’ve been working her and if you see it, she struggles on the dirt, works very ordinary. I knew I had to run her, I had to do something, so I put her in this race and here we are. I told Tyler to put her on the lead, that’s what you do. She ran around there and had turf form so I was very excited to watch her do that off a layoff.”

Bred by Allevamento Deni Effevi in Ireland, Plein Air made 10 starts in Italy as a 3- and 4-year-old. In 2016 she won the Premio Archidamia and ran fourth in the Premio Lydia Tesio (G1) among her seven starts at 3. She made three more starts in 2017 including a second-place finish in the Premio Paolo Mezzanotte in June, before arriving in the U.S. 

Plein Air now has a record of 8-1-1 from 11 starts and earnings of $155,272. 

In the $75,000 Kalookan Queen Stakes, Selcourt and Baze drew off by 7 1/2 lengths for a decisive win.

The 6 1/2-furlong listed stakes event on the main track was the first start since May and only the fourth start overall for the John Sadler-trained Tiz Wonderful filly who is owned by Medallion Racing, Keith Abrahams, and Sandra Lazaruk.

"She ran against really high-class form last year, Union Strike, etc. Nothing but good fillies," Sadler said. "She came back and she's been training really well. She liked the track last year and she's just been floating over it in the mornings this winter. I didn't think we needed to go in non-winners of one, I wanted to get a stakes win with her so we came back in here.

"We'll stretch her out eventually. Maybe she has one more short one and then we'll go around two turns."

Dueling with favored Princess Karen early, Selcourt secured the lead in the field of eight and set fractions of :21.77 and :44.28 for a half-mile. In the stretch, the filly opened up by five lengths and extended that to seven and a half lengths at the wire in a final time of 1:15.88 over the fast track. 

Cuddle Alert closed from fourth to grab second with Cuyathy another 1 1/4 lengths back in third. Princess Karen and Malibu Stacy rounded out the top five finishers. 

Selcourt broke her maiden on debut in February of 2017 at Santa Anita. She then finished second to Del Mar Debutante Stakes (G1) winner Union Strike in the Santa Paula Stakes in April and ran third in the Angels Flight Stakes in May.

Bred by co-owner Keith Abrahams, out of the Open Forum mare Azure Spring, Selcourt improved her record to 2-1-1 from four starts and increased her earnings to $103,920.