Grade 2 winners
TASTE OF PARADISE (Conquistador Cielo) and MCCANN’S MOJAVE
(Memo [Chi]) are among the top draws for Sunday’s $150,000 Palos Verdes H. (G2)
at Santa Anita. Eight sprinters will contest the six-furlong test.
Taste of Paradise, who took the 2003 running of the San Diego H. (G2) at Del
Mar, recorded a couple of stakes victories sprinting last season, taking the Ack
Ack H. in May and capping 2004 with a game score in December’s Vernon O.
Underwood S. (G3). The Gary Mandella-trained six-year-old is the 117-pound co-highweight
and will be ridden by Jose Valdivia Jr.
McCann’s Mojave, who also carries 117 and has been supplemented to the event
by trainer Leonard Dorfman, easily captured the Potrero Grande Breeders’ Cup H.
(G2) early last year and finished second in the Churchill Downs H. (G2) in May
before going to the sidelines. He probably needed his last start earlier this
month off the layoff and will go forth Sunday with jockey David Flores.
The complete Palos Verdes field, from the rail with riders and weights, is
WOKE UP DREAMIN (Holy Bull), Rene Douglas, 114; STONE RAIN (Grindstone), Tyler
Baze, 113; McCann’s Mojave; SAINT AFLEET (Northern Afleet), Pat Valenzuela, 113;
PERFECT MOON (Malibu Moon), Mike Smith, 116; Taste of Paradise; BLUESTHESTANDARD
(American Standard), Martin Pedroza, 116; and HOMBRE RAPIDO (Falstaff), Victor
Espinoza, 116.