Elysea's World Breaks Through for New Connections
Image:
Description:
Photo: Benoit Photo
Elysea's World wins the Santa Ana Stakes at Santa Anita Park
When trainer Richard Baltas welcomed Elysea's World to his barn, he quickly realized she would thrive in a quieter environment than the hustle and bustle of Santa Anita Park.
The 6-year-old daughter of Champs Elysees arrived in California after she was purchased by Abbondanza Racing, having made 21 of her first 22 starts for Sheep Pond Partners, All Pro Racing, and New York-based Chad Brown. After she ran sixth in her first start for Baltas, the Feb. 23 Buena Vista Stakes (G2T) going a mile at Santa Anita, the trainer sent her to the quieter confines of San Luis Rey Training Center and decided to send her longer next time out.
Elysea's World rewarded that intuition by coming to hand March 30 in her second start for her new connections, the $100,000 Santa Ana Stakes (G3T) going 1 1/4 miles at Santa Anita Park.
Sent off as the 2-1 favorite in a seven-horse field, Elysea's World was unhurried and next to last a quarter mile out, as Stradella Road and India Mantuana vied for the advantage. But when Drayden Van Dyke stepped on the gas turning for home, his mount unleashed a powerful rally en route to an impressive half-length win.
"This filly settled for me very nicely," Van Dyke said. "This is the first time I have rode her, but I could tell she is a very classy filly. We had a very nice pace to chase, so I was biding my time before I asked her to run. This race set up for us perfect on paper. She did the rest when we turned for home."
Zaffinah, the 5-2 second choice, rallied from off the pace to take a half length advantage a sixteenth out, but couldn't hold off the winner. She finished a half-length in front of Lynne's Legacy, who rallied for third after chasing fractions of :23.96, :47.01, 1:10.85, and 1:34.95.
The final time was 1:59.24.
"The first effort was sub-par," Baltas said of Elysea's World and her California debut. "That being said, she was kind of nervous here. I was fortunate to have a very good crew at San Luis Rey Downs. I give the credit to my assistant Ruben Losa and the gallop boy, they did a great job with her. Its quieter there.
"She's been training well. You never know when you get a horse from another trainer is they are going to step it up again, but at least she's on the right track now. It depends on the horse when adjusting trainers. A lot of your nervous fillies, they do better at San Luis Rey, especially the grass horses."
Bred in Ireland by Haras D'Haspel out of the Singspiel mare Ideal World, Elysea's World registered her third graded stakes win and improved her earnings to $626,573 with a 7-5-3 record from 24 starts.
After making her first start for Abbondanza alone, Elysea's World is now campaigned in partnership with Jerry McClanahan and Christopher Dunn.
"It's hard to win a race, but you know, it's so exciting when you do win that all you can do is keep hoping and waiting for it to happen," McClanahan said. "We ran three today and got one home. We really thought that this horse was the best horse in the race. We just had to have a good trip and wait for our diamond. We thought we could run by them, so she really just ran like we thought she could. She's a little bit higher level than these horses, so if she didn't get it done today, we might have been in a bit of trouble, but she came through for us."