Kinza stamped herself as the filly to beat in the Santa Anita Oaks on Saturday, traveling gate to wire to win Saturday’s $100,000 Grade III Las Virgenes Stakes at Santa Anita for trainer Bob Baffert.
Whether the daughter of Carpe Diem is a serious contender for the Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs on May 3 is another matter, but the winner showed enough Saturday to vault her atop the other 3-year-old fillies on the local circuit.
Given a characteristically strong ride by Juan Hernandez, even-money favorite Kinza passed her first test around two turns with flying colors, easily holding off 6-5 second choice Kopion by two lengths. She’s a Tempest, a 16-1 longshot, finished another 1½ lengths behind in third.
Kinza, who broke her maiden by 7½ lengths at Santa Anita on Dec. 29, carved out fractions of 22.99, 46.91 and 1:10.82 en route to a time of 1:37.03 for the mile run over a fast main track.
“This filly, she has a lot of talent,” Hernandez said. “She broke on top. Last time she showed a lot of speed. Today it was a faster pace, but she handled it pretty good. I felt like I was putting in a really good pace. My feeling was that she was really comfortable in front. I never asked her to go that fast. She was doing it all on her own.”
The only question was whether Kinza could successfully navigate two turns, but longtime Baffert assistant Jimmy Barnes didn’t see that as a problem going in.
“She acts like a filly that can handle (two turns),” Barnes said. “You don’t know until you do it, but she had shown in the morning in her workouts that she could go further. I was more concerned there was so much speed, with a small field and a lot of speed.”
Kopion, ridden by Flavien Prat, went into the race off a maiden victory by 3¾ lengths at Del Mar on Nov. 26 and a 5¾-length win in the Grade III Santa Ynez Stakes at Santa Anita on Jan. 7. The Omaha Beach filly also was making her two-turn debut.
Kinza and Kopion may duel again in the $300,000 Grade II Santa Anita Oaks on April 6.
Palos Verdes Stakes
Big City Lights, a 5-year-old California-bred by Mr. Big sent postward as the 2-5 favorite, got the bob at the wire in the $100,000 Grade III stakes race and edged pacesetting Hopkins by a nose. Final time for the 6 furlongs was 1:09.91.
“Had it all the way,” cracked winning trainer Richard Mandella, who came up second best in the day’s other two stakes races.
Hopkins, the 9-5 second choice, set the pace with fractions of 22.75 and 45.09 and appeared like he was going to hold on for the victory, but Big City Lights and Prat put on a strong closing surge in the final 50 yards.
“I was (concerned) he didn’t get away running like he usually does,” Mandella said. “I noticed that he did grab a quarter (stepped on his own foot). I didn’t think it was bad, but it was enough to set him back the first part. He showed his class, he dug in and fought it out anyway.”
San Marcos Stakes
Missed the Cut, the 6-5 favorite, got a rail-skimming ride by Joel Rosario and won the $100,000 Grade III turf race for 4-year-olds and older under the tutelage of trainer John Sadler.
Planetario, the 2-1 co-second choice with Balladeer, finished second, 1¼ lengths behind the winner, who covered the 1¼ miles over a grass course labeled “good” in 2:01.14.
Balladeer finished third, 5¼ lengths behind the runner-up, but was disqualified and placed fourth for interference at the top of the stretch.
After the race, Sadler mentioned a race at Royal Ascot in Great Britain in June as a possible target for Missed the Cut, a 5-year-old son of Quality Road.
