Turbulent Descent Wins Santa Anita Oaks

Turbulent Descent sat the right tactical trip under David Flores and turned the tables on Zazu in Saturday's Santa Anita Oaks (G1).

May Day Rose set sail from the rail and posted reasonable fractions of :23.31, :46.67, and 1:10.67 over the speed conducive Santa Anita Park main track. Her stablemate A Z Warrior, making her first start since the Breeders' Cup Juvenile, tracked the pace throughout.

The pacesetter began to waver after six furlongs and Turbulent Descent was making her wide winning move around the far turn. Kilograeme steadied and fell back and Zazu was launching her rally from the back of the compact field.

Turbulent Descent opened up a two length lead but Zazu was inching closer with every stride. The wire arrived just in time with Turbulent Descent holding on by a neck in 1:41.05.

Zazu was more than five clear of A Z Warrior, who weakened in the final furlong but ran a decent race off the shelf. It was a similar margin back to Kilograeme and May Day Rose brought up the rear.

Turbulent Descent now hold a 3-to-1 advantage over Zazu but there does not seem to be much separating the two classy fillies on dirt. 

The winner ran her record to four wins from five starts and paid $4 as the even money favorite. Mike Puype trains the daughter of Congrats.