One More at Home on Santa Anita Turf

Switched to the turf three starts back, One More seems to have found a home on the Santa Anita lawn, as she registered her second win in-a-row Thursday at Santa Anita, winning the sixth race, a $58,000 first condition allowance at 1 1/8 miles in gate to wire fashion under Mario Gutierrez by 1 ½ lengths in 1:48.56.

Off at 5-1 in a field of six 3-year-old fillies, One More cruised through splits of 24.23, 48.56, 1:13.26 and 1:36.94.  Trained by Doug O’Neill, she paid $13.00, $7.00 and $4.40.

“She settled really good today,” said Gutierrez.  “She has been hard to relax in the past, and she’s just now learning how.  When they do relax, you’ll always have plenty of horse left for the finish…She’s maturing and I think she likes the grass as well.”

Owned by J. Paul Reddam’s Reddam Racing, LLC, the Kentucky-bred filly by Holy Bull came off a front-running one mile turf maiden $75,000 claiming win on Feb. 20 and now has two wins and a second from six starts.  With the winner’s share of $34,800, she increased her earnings to $74,370.

“She has a lot of natural speed, but not sprinter speed,” said O’Neill.  “I’ll talk to Mr. Reddam, but I think she might be ready for stakes competition.  She’s a nice filly and we’ll just see how she comes out of it.”

With the temporary rail set at 24 feet, Cause I’m a Bigshot, with Joe Talamo up, saved ground while sitting a close third to the far turn, angled out around the turn, rallied three-deep for home and was game for the place, finishing a neck in front of 5-2 second choice Sweet Bliss and Corey Nakatani.

The fourth choice at 5-1, Cause I’m a Bigshot paid $6.80 and $4.60.

Sweet Bliss rallied wide from next to last with a quarter mile to run and finished third, 1 ¼ lengths in front of 8-5 favorite Practising, who was ridden by Rafael Bejarano.  Sweet Bliss paid $3.20 to show.