SUNLAND PARK OAKS

With racing on hiatus at Santa Anita Park, the nine-horse field for the March 24 Sunland Park Oaks features a pair of heavyweights at Sunland Park.

Kaleem Shah's Bellafina, a two-time grade 1 winner last year in Southern California, and winner of the Feb. 9 Las Virgenes Stakes (G2) at Santa Anita, takes her game to New Mexico to tackle Summer Wind Equine's Chasing Yesterday in the $200,000 Oaks at 1 1/16 miles.


At morning-line odds of 7-5, Bellafina and Chasing Yesterday, who is slated at odds of 9-5, figure to suck most of the oxygen out of the Sunland Park Oaks. A strapping daughter of Quality Road , Bellafina was the beaten favorite in the Tito's Handmade Vodka Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1) and Chasing Yesterday is a half sister to Triple Crown winner American Pharoah , trained by a Hall of Fame legend.

Chasing Yesterday closed out 2018 with three consecutive wins, her last in the grade 1 Starlet Stakes at Los Alamitos.

While the Tapit  filly is also a West Coast-based horse, her trainer Bob Baffert has quite a history of winning the Sunland Park Oaks while preparing a 3-year-old filly for the spring's ultimate prize, the May 3 Longines Kentucky Oaks (G1).

Baffert has won past Sunland Park Oaks with Maybellene (2015), Shah's Awesome Baby (2014), Midnight Lucky (2013; setting a track record), Plum Pretty (2011), Gabby's Golden Gal (2009), and Tough Tiz's Sis (2007).

Both Bellafina and Chasing Yesterday have recorded triple-digit Equibase Speed Figures. The highest figure from the seven other opponents is an 86 recorded by Enlisting, another West Coast runner, who won at the $50,000 claiming level last time out.

Local hope Victim of Love will command some respect. Tommy Town Thoroughbred's daughter of Speightstown  was an 11 3/4-length maiden winner at Sunland Park Jan. 22 and won the Oaks prep, the one-mile Island Fashion Stakes, by 1 3/4 lengths. In her wake were Backflash, K P Slickem, and Parade of Roses, all of whom make their back for more in the Oaks.

Midnight Storm
ENTRIES: SUNLAND PARK OAKS
Sunland Park, Sunday, March 24, 2019, Race 9

STK1 1/16mDirt $200,0003 yo Fillies4:27 PM (local)
PP Horse Jockey Wgt Trainer M/L
1 1Victim of Love (KY)Keeneland Sales Graduate Ry Eikleberry 121 Henry Dominguez 4/1
2 2Parade of Roses (KY)Keeneland Sales Graduate Joseph Talamo 121 Nate Williams 10/1
3 3Figure (KY)Keeneland Sales Graduate Ken S. Tohill 121 Joel H. Marr 12/1
4 4Peaceoutyourhonor (KY) Alfredo J. Juarez, Jr. 121 Tony E. Sedillo 30/1
5 5Backflash (KY) Luis Contreras 121 Steven M. Asmussen 6/1
6 6K P Slickem (VA) Tyler Baze 121 Weston L. Martin 8/1
7 7Chasing Yesterday (KY) Drayden Van Dyke 121 Bob Baffert 9/5
8 8Enlisting (KY)Keeneland Sales Graduate Kent J. Desormeaux 121 Robert B. Hess, Jr. 5/1
9 9Bellafina (KY)Keeneland Sales Graduate Flavien Prat 121 Simon Callaghan 7/5