La Brea Opens Long Santa Anita Meet

The Santa Anita Winter/Spring meet that will provide more than 100 days of racing from now to June kicks off with three major stakes races on opening day, December 26. Races 6 and 8 will be Grade I events, first the $300,000 La Brea Stakes for three-year-old fillies running seven furlongs on the dirt, and then the $300,000 Malibu Stakes for three-year-olds also at seven furlongs. Sandwiched between will be the $200,000 Grade II Sir Beaufort Stakes, for three-years-olds going one mile on the turf.

Favorite has won at this level this year

The morning line favorite for the La Brea is Kentucky-bred Sweet Lulu (8-5), already a Grade I winner three starts back in the Test Stakes at Saratoga this past summer. Unraced as a juvenile, she started her career with four straight wins. She also finished second in the Grade I Cotillion Stakes, before fading to fifth after having the early lead in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint. Trainer Peter Miller has two in the race, including the second ML choice My Happy Face, who has had some results in graded-stakes company, but who is still looking for a Grade I win.

Third race in 2013 could be the charm

If she can manage to find her form of last year, Executiveprivilege, 4-1 in the morning line, may have something to say in the outcome. In 2012 she won three straight graded races, with the last two being Grade I’s. After a second in the BC Juvenile Fillies as the favorite, she closed out the season with a fourth in the Hollywood Starlet. But she’s zero-for-two in a high-level allowance and a minor stakes for 2013. Longshot Journey On (12-1) has won four-of-five at much lower competition, and on the grass. If she takes to the dirt, she might get a piece.