Enchanting Lady Flies Home in Landaluce Romp
Heavily favored Enchanting Lady ran to her odds in Sunday’s $125,000 Landaluce Stakes at Santa Anita, winning the 5 ½ furlong test for 2-year-old fillies by 6 ¼ lengths under Martin Garcia in 1:03.94, which easily bested the winning time of 1:04.28 in the preceding Santa Anita Juvenile for colts and geldings.
Off at 6-5 in a field of nine 2-year-old fillies, Enchanting Lady turned the tables on second choice Seduire, who had beaten her in a 4 ½ furlong maiden special weight on May 22.
Ridden by Martin Garcia, Enchanting Lady broke from the far outside and sat a close second to Seduire and Corey Nakatani to the quarter pole through splits of 21.67, 45.05 and 57.39, swung three wide at the top of the lane and won like a very special filly in only her second start.
Trained by Bob Baffert, Enchanting Lady paid $4.60, $2.40 and $2.40.
“I was surprised she got beat the first time out (at odds of 2-5),” said Baffert. “But her last race really woke her up and she’s been training really well. She was pretty sharp. She ran like I thought. You’re always hoping they do something like that.”
Owned by Kaleem Shah, Inc., Enchanting Lady, a Kentucky-bred by Tale of the Cat out of the A.P. Indy mare A.P. Baby, picked up $75,000 for the win and increased her earnings to $86,200.
Seduire, who defeated Enchanting Lady by 1 ½ lengths on May 22, broke from the rail, was hustled to the lead and was obviously in deep water turning for home. The second choice at 9-5, she finished 3 ¼ lengths in front of My Fiona and paid $2.80 and $2.60.
“We just got outrun by a better filly today,” said Nakatani. “She was a little green changing leads. She’ll improve off this.”
Ridden by Fernando Perez and trained by Walther Solis, California-bred My Fiona worked her way through traffic around the turn and despite not switching leads through the stretch, managed a third place finish, 3 ¼ lengths in front of longshot Morning Coffee. Off at 11-1, My Fiona paid $3.60 to show.
The final week in Santa Anita’s inaugural Spring Meet begins on Thursday, with first post time at 1 p.m. Admission gates open at 11 a.m.