Sam's Sister Nips Taris to Win La Brea

 

The Brother Derek filly bested a field of nine, including the 3-5 favorite Taris, to take her biggest prize to date in her fifth career start for owners Mark Dedomenico LLC, George Tedaro and trainer Jerry Hollendorfer.

 

The speedy Taris broke a step slow but hustled to take the early lead. Uzziel pressed the pace a length behind, followed by Stonetastic in third. Sam’s Sister gained on the leaders midway through the turn, advancing into fourth after tracking the pace from the sixth position on the backstretch.

 

Taris shook free of Uzziel and Sam’s Sister, under the guidance of Elvis Trujillo, swept four wide into the stretch and gave chase with less than an eighth of a mile to go. Taris, ridden by Rafael Bejarano for trainer Simon Callaghan, couldn’t hold off Sam’s Sister’s late kick and was beaten by a half length at the wire.

 

In the wake of Sam’s Sister, the early-trailing Thank You Marylou followed in kind with a big late run of her own, passing rivals in the stretch to get up for third, ahead of Ramona’s Wildcat in fourth.

 

Uzziel, More Complexity, Stonetastic, Jojo Warrior and Amaranth completed the order of finish. Awesome Baby scratched from the La Brea to run in Sunday’s Kalookan Queen Stakes. 

 

Taris led the opening quarters through splits of :21.85, :43.97 and 1:08.91. Sent off at 12-1, Sam’s Sister finished the job to cover the seven furlongs in 1:22.52.

 

"I had a perfect trip," Trujillo said about his second win on the opening day card. "I saw a lot of speed in the race when I looked at it and three or four horses went to the lead. I sat covered up and in the stretch, I was in the clear."

The winner paid $27.00, $7.80 and $4.20 across the board. 

 

The winner’s share of $180,000 boosted Sam’s Sister’s total earnings to $307,450 from a record of four wins from five starts. Her only off-the-board finish came in an Optional Allowance event on the turf at Del Mar in her last out on Nov. 21, in which the chestnut filly hopped at the start and failed to fire in the lane.

 

Bred in Kentucky by Brereton C. Jones, Sam’s Sister is a Keeneland Yearling Sales graduate, passing the auction block for $125,000 in 2012.

 

"When we got here to Santa Anita and reviewed the stakes schedule, we pretty much thought that we wanted to point her for the La Brea if she was going good," Hollendorfer said. "We had confidence in her from her first couple of victories. We’ve always liked her."

 

By Heather Pettinger