Santa Anita: See the fields for Saturday's graded stakes

With two sharp recent wins to her credit, Bob Baffert’s Adare Manor looms large in Saturday’s Grade 2, $200,000 Santa Margarita Stakes at Santa Anita as she faces four rival fillies and mares going 1 1/4 miles over the Santa Anita main track.

Although a disappointing second as the 4-5 favorite three starts back in a classified allowance at seven furlongs, Adare Manor bounced back with a game head victory going a flat mile at the same condition on March 31, and her rousing 4 3/4-length triumph in the Santa Maria (G2) at 1 1/16 miles might haveve been the best race of her career.

A 4-year-old daughter of Uncle Mo out of the Giant Gizmo mare Brooklynsway, Adare Manor is owned by Michael Lund Petersen. Blessed with an abundance of natural speed, Adare Manor will be extremely tough to beat with regular rider Juan Hernandez back aboard.

A Grade 3 stakes winner at age 3, Adare Manor has earnings of $501,600 and is 10: 4-4-0 overall, with all of her wins coming on the Santa Anita main track.

Talented Arizona-bred Desert Dawn, winner of last year’s Santa Anita Oaks (G2), returns from Kentucky where she finished fifth, beaten six lengths in the La Troienne (G1) at 1 1/16 miles March 5.

A 4-year-old filly trained by Phil D’Amato and owned by her breeder, H and E Ranch, Desert Dawn has been winless in six starts since her Santa Anita Oaks score but has been in the money in four of those starts, all graded stakes, including a third-place finish in the Kentucky Oaks (G1).

By Cupid out of the Honour and Glory mare Ashley’s Glory, Desert Dawn, with regular rider Umberto Rispoli up, will hope to get a stalking trip and be able to run down the top selection late. The leading money earner in the field with $672,525, Desert Dawn is 13: 2-2-4 overall.

John Sadler’s Kirstenbosch, a game nose winner of the La Cañada (G3) four starts back, will be making her fifth start of the year as she tries to improve upon a fifth place finish behind Adare Manor in the Santa Maria, a race in which Kirstenbosch bobbled at the break and was never a factor.

Ridden by the now-departed Kazushi Kimura in her last five starts, Kirstenbosch will get the first-time services of Hector Berrios, who with four stakes wins at the current Hollywood Meet, ranks second to Juan Hernandez, who has nine added money victories.

Owned and bred in Kentucky by Keith Abrahams, Kirstenbosch, a 4-year-old filly by Midnight Lute out of the Belong to Me mare Llandudno, is 13: 3-3-2 with earnings of $372,480.

Lightly raced Paris Secret leads Honeymoon field

Lightly raced and a recent graded stakes winner of the Santa Anita turf, Phil D’Amato’s Irish-bred Paris Secret is the horse to beat among a field of eight sophomores fillies going 1 1/8 miles on turf in Saturday’s Grade 3, $100,000 Honeymoon Stakes.

A winner of the Providencia Stakes (G3) at 1 1/8 miles on turf April 29, Paris Secret looks tough right back for D’Amato, Santa Anita’s leading Hollywood Meet trainer with 14 wins and five added money victories.

A first-out winner going one mile on a turf listed as heavy in her native Ireland Oct. 31, Paris Secret made her U.S. debut at Santa Anita on March 18 going one mile on grass in the ungraded China Doll Stakes. Breaking slowly, she lacked room around the far turn and finished an even fourth.

Reserved off the early pace in the Providencia, Paris Secret rallied to prove best, winning by three quarters of a length at 3-1. With Kazushi Kimura now back at his Woodbine base, top jock Juan Hernandez picks up the call.

Owned by Strand Beach, Paris Beach posted a solid 83 Beyer Speed Figure in winning the Providencia and will now be seeking her third win from four overall starts.

Dismissed at 19-1, Pleasant Wave rallied well to be second, beaten three quarters of a length by Paris Secret in the Providencia and with Diego Herrera riding back for trainer George Papaprodromou, she’ll hope to run down the top selection on Saturday.

Owned by Calvin Nguyen and Joey Tran, Pleasant Wave, a Kentucky-bred filly by More Than Ready out of the Forestry mare Oak Trees Dancing, will be trying a route of ground for the second time as she tries to improve upon an overall mark of 5: 1-1-0.

D’Amato’s second Honeymoon entrant is Irish-bred Comanche Country, a two-time turf stakes winner at age two who returns from Churchill Downs following a ninth place finish going a mile and one sixteenth on turf in the Edgewood Stakes (G2) on May 5.

With Umberto Rispoli back at the controls, Comanche Country would be flattered by a quick early pace. Owned by Little Red Feather Racing, Sterling Stables and Marsha Naify, Comanche Country has three wins and two second place finishes from eight starts.

Third, beaten a length by second place finisher Comanche Country in the China Doll March 18, trainer Michael McCarthy’s Tea N Conversation has been freshened and will be ridden for the first time by Kent Desormeaux, in what will be her ninth career start.

A respectable fourth going one mile on turf here in both the Lady of Shamrock and the Blue Norther Stakes on Feb. 12 and Dec. 30, Tea N Conversation is owned by Spendthrift Farm. By Candy Ride out of the Rock Hard Ten mare Lady Ten, Tea N Conversation broke her maiden four starts back going a mile on turf at Del Mar Dec. 3 and will be seeking her first stakes win in what will be her ninth career start.

A 2 1/4-length maiden winner in her second start going one mile on turf at Meadowlands Sept. 24, Irish-bred Selenaia makes her Southern California debut on the heels of a solid first condition allowance score going a mile on grass at Indiana Downs May 10, a race in which she rallied from well off the pace while earning an 82 Beyer.

Trained by Jonathan Thomas and owned by Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and Madaket Stables, Selenaia appears to be a solid fit and will be ridden by Joe Bravo.