Abel Tasman Seeks First Santa Anita Stakes in Zenyatta

With all the success she's had at racetracks across country, China Horse Club and Clearsky Farms' Abel Tasman is still in search of her first stakes score where she's spent most of her career training, at Santa Anita Park.

The six-time grade 1 winner has earned top-level victories at four different racetracks and she'll get the opportunity to win her first at home in the $300,000 Zenyatta Stakes (G1) Sept. 30.

Abel Tasman broke her maiden at the Arcadia, Calif., racetrack in September of 2016, when she was trained by Simon Callaghan, and her other two starts at Santa Anita came against stiff competition. Her second-place run in the 2017 Santa Ysabel (G2), her last start for Callaghan, came behind Unique Bella, and her second-place finish in the 2017 Santa Anita Oaks (G1) came on a day when Paradise Woods put on a freakish performance and won the race by 11 3/4 lengths.

But then came wins in the Longines Kentucky Oaks (G1), Acorn (G1), and Coaching Club American Oaks (G1), and this season 4-year-old Abel Tasman has won the June 9 Ogden Phipps (G1) and Aug. 25 Personal Ensign (G1) after a fourth-place finish in the La Troienne (G1) to kick off her 2018 campaign. The La Troienne was the only time in nine starts for trainer Bob Baffert that the Quality Road  filly has finished worse than first or second.

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"She's always been a good mare—a really good racehorse," Baffert said. "She's been very talented since the day we got her. Santa Anita hasn't been her favorite track, but she's changed a lot. She's breaking much better now and getting into races."

Baffert's other entry in the 1 1/16-mile test for fillies and mares 3 and older, Vale Dori, has not gotten involved in races as well as she did through an impressive run at age 4 and 5. Now 6, the Asiatic Boy mare returned from a nearly nine-month layoff for her 2018 campaign and hasn't won in four starts. The five-time graded winner, who took the 2017 Santa Margarita Stakes (G1) and also finished second by a neck to champion Stellar Wind in two other grade 1 races last year, hasn't quite been herself in 2018. Last time out Aug. 24 in the Tranquility Lake Stakes at Del Mar, she finished 8 1/2 lengths behind fellow Zenyatta entrant Shenandoah Queen.

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"We're trying to get her back into form, but she's not leaving the gate like she can," Baffert said. "When she's not breaking or breaking slow, she loses contact early and that's tough on her. But she's been working well. Every time she works with Abel Tasman, she works heads up with her."

The main challenger to Abel Tasman, based on recent form, is the German-bred La Force, who finished second to the now-retired Unique Bella in the June 2 Beholder Mile (G1) and the July 29 Clement L. Hirsch Stakes (G1), but the late-running Power filly will likely need a fast pace to set up her closing style.

The field is completed by a pair of 3-year-olds who are exiting races restricted to their age group. Lemoona last raced in the Aug. 26 Torrey Pines Stakes (G3), where she finished fifth, while Fool's Paradise came in eighth in the Aug. 18 Del Mar Oaks Presented by The Jockey Club (G1T). Both fillies, however, have previously defeated older horses in allowance company.

Entries: Zenyatta S. (G1)

Santa Anita Park, Sunday, September 30, 2018, Race 5

• Grade I
• 1 1/16m
• Dirt
• $300,000
• 3 yo's & up Fillies and Mares
• 2:42 PM (local)

PP	Horse	Jockey	Wgt	Trainer	M/L
1	1Shenandoah Queen (KY)	Tyler Baze	121	John W. Sadler	6/1
2	2Abel Tasman (KY)	Mike E. Smith	125	Bob Baffert	2/5
3	3La Force (GER)	Drayden Van Dyke	121	Patrick Gallagher	4/1
4	4Vale Dori (ARG)	Joseph Talamo	123	Bob Baffert	5/1
5	5Lemoona (KY)	Flavien Prat	118	Richard Baltas	20/1
6	6Fool's Paradise (KY)	Mario Gutierrez	118	Ben D. A. Cecil	30/1