A pair of bona fide Grade 1 performers, Johannes and She Feels Pretty, will be strongly favored to end their respective seasons on winning notes Thursday at Santa Anita.
Johannes, the dominant older turf male based in Southern California, will look to rebound in the $200,000 San Gabriel (G2) off of a credible second in last month’s Breeders’ Cup Mile (G1) at Del Mar. Johannes had previously won four straight, including the Shoemaker Mile (G1), Eddie Read (G2), and City of Hope Mile (G2).
The 2023 San Gabriel winner, Easter, has had a down season, thus recent Seabiscuit H. (G2) victor Mi Hermano Ramon looks a stronger player for the win. Astronomer and Dicey Mo Chara, meanwhile, appear stronger candidates for minor awards in the nine-furlong San Gabriel.
She Feels Pretty tops a field of 13 three-year-old fillies in the $300,000 American Oaks (G1) over 1 1/4 miles on the turf, and will be difficult to topple if she runs anywhere close to how she did in the Oct. 12 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup (G1) at Keeneland.
Racing with blinkers for the first time, She Feels Pretty responded with an emphatic six-length victory for trainer Cherie DeVaux. The daughter of Karakontie has never been out of the money in seven career starts, having also captured the Natalama (G1) last season and the Hilltop S. in May.
Other logical contenders include local Grade 3 scorers Watchtower and Medoro, plus recent Dueling Grounds Oaks heroine Kathynmarissa.
There are no standouts in the $300,000 La Brea (G1), a seven-furlong main track test for three-year-old fillies, but many have the credentials to win.
The more familiar names include Tamara, a Grade 1 winner at two who recently returned from a year-long layoff and finished second by a nose in a Del Mar allowance to Sandy Bottom, who was returning from an even longer spell. Then there is Kinza, who last winter captured the Las Virgenes (G3) and Santa Ysabel (G3), before finishing a distant second in the Santa Anita Oaks (G2). Another who has done her best work in the more distant past is Kopion, who landed the Santa Ynez (G3) in early January.
Sugar Fish has been inconsistent this season, but did capture the Summertime Oaks (G2) and Zenyatta (G2) before a recent fifth in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff (G1). Hope Road, like Kinza a Bob Baffert trainee, is riding a four-race win streak that includes the Torrey Pines (G3) and Bayakoa (G3). One Magic Philly bested older fillies and mares in the Chillingworth (G3) two back and was beaten less than three lengths in the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint (G1).
Also expected to get play are a trio of stakes newcomers, in particular the Michael McCarthy-trained Accuracy, who has won her last two starts by a cumulative 22 1/4 lengths. The Baffert quartet of La Brea entries is rounded out by a pair of recent allowance winners, Splendora and Cavalieri.
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