Great Lady M Stakes 2014; Seven Great Ladies Ready To Race

Great Lady M Stakes 2014; Seven Great Ladies Ready To Race: This Saturday, July 12, 2014, the GI Great Lady M Stakes will be raced at Los Alamitos Racetrack in Cypress, California for the first time and is one of three stakes races to be run the final weekend of the Summer Thoroughbred Festival. A pair of $100,000 6 furlong races for 2 year-olds are scheduled for Sunday, July 13th closing out the season.

Known more recently as the A Gleam Handicap, it was run at the now shuttered Hollywood Park with last summers edition being the finale. This year the race has been retitled for fillies and mares ready to race 6 1/2 furlongs on the dirt for a purse of $200,000.

Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert has nabbed two of the last three runnings of the A Gleam with Irish Gypsy in 2011 and Book Review in 2013. Jerry Hollendorfer, another Hall of Famer, has won the A Gleam twice with Somethinaboutlaura who won it in 2006 & 2007. These two initially had 6 nominated but only two were entered. I thought it was going to be a Baffert/Hollendorfer blowout as these two always seem to go toe-to-toe in a lot of the West Coast races. Alas, I was wrong and that won’t be the last time.

The 2014 Great Lady M Stakes is the 7th race of the day on a card of 8 with an approximate start time of 5:00 pm, PST.

Kari’s Picks and Plays:

My top pick for this race is Baffert’s 4 year-old filly Tres Belle. This lightly raced daughter of War Front and an Awesome Again mare has a record of 7:3:1. She’ll be making her fourth start of 2014 after an 8 month layoff and with the switch back to dirt in her last three races, she seems to be on track with a surface she thrives on. She has two recents wins at Churchill, one May 24th where she cruised home after a bobbled start in a claimer going 7f on the dirt tracking the pace in second and on April 29th, going 6f on the dirt, once again chasing the pace. Her first race of 2014 was April 4th at Santa Anita where she finished second to My Sweet Addiction going 6f on the dirt. In 2013 she raced four times, first time out on the dirt going 7f 3/29/13 for her maiden win, then they tried her twice on the synthetic and turf all three finishing 4th, 4th and 7th. Back to dirt, back to winning ways. Only knock here is post #1. However, the Baffert/Garcia combo is hot so let’s hope she gets it done with decent odds.

The Peter Miller trained Heir Kitty is coming off a three month layoff after finishing 4th in the (GI) Madison on the poly at Keeneland April 12th, running 5 1/4 lengths behind Judy The Beauty. The 4 year-old daughter of Wildcat Heir has won four of seventeen but her (GI) win is her only victory in five races on the dirt, so I’m a little skeptical here. That win was at Santa Anita on December 26th, 2013 in the La Brea Stakes where she defeated a nice field including Executiveprivilege and Sweet LuLu. If she regains that form Saturday, watch out. She seems to run well off layoffs and with Joe Talamo up to ride from post #4, could nab the throne.

The 4 year-old Unbridled Energy filly, Sagebrush Queen, has a race record of 9:4:2:0 and is on a win-streak. Last out on June 15th, this Jorge Guiterrez trained gal won the 6 furlong Desert Stormer by one length making it her second win in a row and third of her last four starts. She has a win at Santa Anita at 6 1/2 F on March 9th and followed that up with a 7th place finish when they tried stretching her out to 1 1/16 miles on the dirt April 19th at Santa Anita. She’s back to sprinting with Maldonado riding again from post #6.

I’m thinking they’ll send Tres Belle from the rail and hopefully track Amaranth who seems to like the lead and has some decent speed. As far as value, Tres Belle will probably get bet down with the trainer/jockey combo and her record. So I’ll be playing a small pick 3. Amaranth is also coming of a win streak and is stepping up in class. I wouldn’t be surprised to see her grab a slice of the pie. I’m going to play a $1 pick 3 starting in Race #5: 2,3,7/3/1,4,6 – $9 Thank you Sigi for adding your picks and play. Greatly appreciated. Good luck to everyone this weekend.

Sigi’s Picks and Plays:

In the Great Lady M Stakes I’m using two ladies. Heir Kitty, who looks fit and ready to win this race. If the pace is hot, she will be very tough to beat. Tres Belle has a winning streak and the connections are very effective. This time I’m playing a $1 pick 3 starting in the 5th race.
R5: 3,7 R6: 3,7 R7: 4,1 – $8.00
See Sigi’s Full Los Alamitos Picks

2014 Great Lady M Stakes Post Positions & Odds
1. Tres Belle 3/1 M.Garcia/B.Baffert
2. Concave (ON) 10/1 E.Trujillo/D.O’Neill
3. Clearly Confused 4/1 T.Baze/R.Baltas
4. Heir Kitty 5/2 J.Talamo/P.Miller
5. Amaranth 8/1 D.Carr/O.Jauregui
6. Sagebrush Queen 5/1 E.Maldonado/J.Guiterrez
7. Doinghardtimeagain 5/1 M.Smith/J.Hollendorfer