Las Cienegas Stakes (Grade 3)- $100.000 Purse
SA- For Fillies and Mares Four Years Old and Upward
Six and a Half Furlongs on the Turf
January 9, 2022

Happy New Year, everyone! It’s exciting to be back at it for coverage of another year of virtual racing excitement. What will the great races of 2022 hold for us? That won’t be answered for a while, so for now, let’s think a little smaller with a Grade 3 coming to us from SA. The Las Cienegas Stakes is for turf females that prefer to run a shorter distance, sending them six and a half furlongs. This is a race that debuted in 2004 and has been won by many different trainers since then. Darling Harbour is the most well known former winner, and many of the other victors have much lesser profiles. In 2021, Z Laffy One picked up the win for Ace Racing Stable. It was a good year for the then five year old mare, but now she is headed to the shed after a well done 34-race career. We got a field of five veterans of the track for this race, and here’s a look at them!

#1- Phoe Eva (Angelos Stable, ridden by Ru Gonzalez)- Angelos will have two horses in the race, and they represent the two winningest horses within it in terms of earnings. Phoe Eva has made her living running a mile, and comes out of the Grade 1 Matriarch, where she was third. Going back a bit with her, she had some success sprinting and she has had plenty of preparation to do this within her works. All in all, she is looking good, and as long as she starts her closing run earlier, or use a different tactic, she will be fine.

#2- Point Of Honor (High Voltage, ridden by A Cedillo)- This filly was moved to the grass in June of last year, and has been relatively successful in winning one of those races, which was a $75.000 stake. Otherwise, she’s been better at getting a piece of the purse, including two third place efforts over the summer. Of those seven races on the grass, only one was a sprint. And that was the race she won, and for her career she is 2-for-3 when running less than a mile.

#3- All By Myself (TwinTowersRacing, ridden by J Bravo)- Not a horse that will be known for winning, as she has just two in her 21 starts. However, she has been a lot more successful in hitting the board, placing second or third five times. Most of those were in overnights, but you have to like how she had little trouble moving up the ladder into the Grade 2 NY in June. She’s yet another horse in this field who has not done much sprinting.

#4- Lady Of Lord (Our Athletes, ridden by J R Velazquez)- While All By Myself has not won much, Lady Of Lord has made frequent visits to the winner’s circle after races, doing so eight times in nineteen starts. She is also not a horse that has been going long that is cutting back to sprint for this race. The five year old Lord High Admiral mare has been sprinting ever since the middle of June, and if anything she’ll need to be ready to run more than five furlongs. There are a couple stakes in her past performances, but none of them generated a result to be excited about. With wins in her last two, that could be about to change.

#5- Cassandra G (Angelos Stable, ridden by Mario Gutierrez)- The second of the two Angelos Stable runners, and this one has not been a stranger to running in sprints. It’s pretty much all she has done in her impressive career that has seen ten wins in 22 starts. Her biggest win to date is the Grade 2 Monrovia, where she defeated last year’s winner, Z Laffy One, right here at SA. She also comes out of the $150.000 Autumn Days at AQU, that she also won. This track record, and not being a stranger to conditions like this makes her the best bet in the race.

Prediction: 5-2-4-1

— NS

Categories: Grade III, STAKES ARTICLES