Santa Anita: Sugar Fish starts poorly, wins Summertime Oaks

After stumbling at the start, Sugar Fish uncorked a huge performance under Tyler Baze to win as the longest shot on the board Saturday in the Grade 2, $200,000 Summertime Oaks at Santa Anita.

Sugar Fish (5-1), who was making her stakes debut for trainer Jeff Mullins, was understandably last after the poor start.

“I thought we were done,” Mullins said.

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She remained in the back until the field of four 3-year-old fillies neared the quarter pole, where Sugar Fish darted through along the rail and proceeded to draw off in the stretch to win by 9 3/4 lengths.

“She stumbled pretty good today, but then she got her feet up from under her and just took me,” Baze said.

“We were taking a big chance going into this race, but we’ve always known that she is a nice filly,” Mullins said. “Down the backside I felt confident. When Tyler made the move on the turn and got through, and nobody was coming, I said it’s over.”

Santa Anita Oaks (G2) winner Nothing Like You (1-2), the favorite, was second with another three-quarters of a length back to Jane Austen (7-2) in third.

With Juan Hernández up, Nothing Like You raced wide throughout. She made a promising outside move on the second turn but then flattened out through the lane. With no show wagering, Sugar Fish paid $13.40 and $3.20. Nothing Like You, trained by Bob Baffert, returned $2.20. The winning time for 1 1/16 miles on the fast main track was 1:43.41.

Jane Austen, who was 2-for-2 entering her stakes debut for trainer Mark Glatt, set fractions of 23.80, 47.41 and 1:11.55 under Antonio Fresu.

Sugar Fish, a $40,000 auction buy, improved to 6: 3-1-0 with $183,400 in earnings. Owned by Sweetwater Stable and Talla Racing, the Accelerate filly entered off a head victory against older horses in a first-level allowance going a mile April 26 at Santa Anita. It was her first start around two turns. Before that, she graduated going seven furlongs and winning by 10 lengths when running for a $40,000 tag in an optional-claiming maiden race.

For Baze this was his first graded-stakes win since the 2022 Santa Margarita (G2) aboard Blue Stripe at Santa Anita. He had ridden Sugar Fish in her four previous starts.

“She has been doing so good, she’s growing up and maturing,” Baze said. “She reminds me a lot of her daddy. I got to ride him, and now I get the opportunity to ride this filly. I hope she is as good as he was.”

This was Mullins’s third win the Summertime Oaks. He also won the race in 2005 with Brooke’s Halo and 2009 with Carlsbad.

“We’ve always known that she is a good filly, but she’s had temperamental issues here and there,” Mullins said. “She has just gotten better and better as she’s gone long.”