Evo Campo, Place des Vosges headline Santa Barbara Stakes

With a recent race under her belt, Irish-bred Evo Campo, along with streaking Place des Vosges head a field of nine fillies & mares three and up in Sunday’s marathon Grade III, $100,000 Santa Barbara Stakes which will be contested at a mile and one half over the Santa Anita turf.

To be run for the 68th time on Sunday, the Santa Barbara has been won by a number of great distaffers, including Princessnesian (1968), Susan’s Girl (1973), Gay Style (1975), Waya (1979), Brown Bess (1990), Kostroma (1992), Astra (2001 & 2002) and Megahertz (2003, 2004 & 2005).

EVO CAMPO: Trained by Paddy Gallagher, she was likely in need of a race when fifth in the Grade II Santa Ana Stakes gong a mile and one eighth on turf here March 12, as she’d been idle since winning the mile and a half turf Possibly Perfect Stakes on June 12, 2016.A 5-year-old mare, Evo Campo has four wins and a third from eight starts over the Santa Anita turf and is unbeaten in her only try at the Santa Barbara distance of 1 ½ miles.A stalking second in the early Santa Ana going, she tired to be beaten six lengths and can be expected to once again be attentive to the pace on Sunday.Owned by Day, Day and DiPietro, Evo Campo is 12-5-1-2 overall with earnings of $174,121.

PLACE DES VOSGES: Based for most of her career in Kentucky, this 5-year-old mare by Pleasantly Perfect has been an impressive turf allowance winner in her last two starts at distances of a 1 1/8 miles (March 26) and 1 ¼ miles (Feb. 24) and will go postward for the fifth time on Sunday for trainer Richard Baltas.Ridden by Corey Nakatani in her last four races, she’s run with the addition of blinkers in her last two and responded with a career-best Beyer Speed figure of 89 on March 26.The Santa Barbara will be her first foray into graded stakes company and look for her to be on the move from off the pace in her first try at a mile and one half.Owned by Abbondanza Racing, LLC, Place des Vosges is 23-4-6-3 with earnings of $207,264.

THE GRADE III SANTA BARBARA STAKES WITH JOCKEYS & WEIGHTS IN POST POSITION ORDER

Race 6 of 9 Approximate post time 3:30 p.m. PT

1.  Estrechada—Stewart Elliott--122

2.  Place des Vosges—Corey Nakatani—122

3.  Dressed to a T—Flavien Prat--122

4.  Hiking—Brice Blanc—122

5.  Responsibleforlove—Kent Desormeaux—122

6.  Betty Draper—Santiago Gonzalez--122

7.  Mrs. Norris—Victor Espinoza—122

8.  Evo Campo—Rafael Bejarano—122

9.  Laseen—Mike Smith--122