Wilshire Stakes – Grade III
1 Mile Turf Graded Stake Purse $100.000 Fillies And Mares Four Years Old And Upward. At SA
Wilshire Stakes has been around since 2006 producing decent winners but until the two most recent years, only a couple of millionaires Riggins Racing’s Maahes and Paradise Stable’s Tidal Wave, both of which earned in the neighborhood of $1,500.000. Now, along comes 2024 and the race catches the eye of none other than Mb Stables, and he sends out Demanding Commander in ’24 and Let Me Explain in ’25, each of them with earnings over $3,700.000. It looks like Riggins Racing and Mb Stables have lost interest in the race, but Paradise Stable is back for a try with Outrageous Nevada. She will have her hooves full with the likes of Threshold’s Voltaire, Mo Mentum Farm’s Love and Spb Racing’s Risky Valuation. Here’s the field:
Horse Owner Odds SRF
Voltaire Threshold 4-1 92
Love Mo Mentum Farm 4-1 82
Risky Valuation Spb Racing *3-1 94
Outrageous Nevada Paradise Stable 5-1 91
Mundi Moon High Voltage 5-1 92
Miss Hijinks Maxmillion Farm 10-1 88
Engine Night Rider Stables 12-1 93
Baby Katherine Santan Stables 10-1 92
Itaintovertilitsover TwinTowersRacing 10-1 91
Mundi Moon, a dedicated miler, started to look a little tired back in October, so she has been freshened up the last five months and makes her six-year-old debut here. She was unable to win in an abbreviated five-race season last year, whereas she was winning and placing in Graded stakes in 2024. The biggest problem I see is with her current training. She does seem to have lost a step when you look at her mile works: 1:34 3/5H in August and 1:35 3/5H in March.
2 Risky Valuation Spb Racing 94
Risky Valuation came from off the pace to win a big-ticket allowance race at FG at a mile last out. Then go back to last October for the previous mile race and she won the Grade III Autumn Miss Stakes at SA. In fact, she has raced a mile five times and won three and placed second in the other two… kinda scary. So, I would expect a big race out of the high last out SRF.
3 Outrageous Nevada Paradise Stable 91
I ran into a slightly inebriated trainer Silky White who admitted Outrageous Nevada has had a cough for the past few days but should be OK to race today. Knowing Silky, it’s only pneumonia. Talk about dedicated milers, Outrageous Nevada has raced one mile in 20 of her 21 races. She’s not much of a Graded stakes runner, but in stakes races, she’s reliable for a check. She just reeled off six straight in the money runs in stakes races before running up the track in the Grade III Megahertz at SA. She seems to keep promising to break through, in spite of Silky.
4 Baby Katherine Santan Stables 92
Santan Stables picked up Baby Katherine from Mb Stables for $9.680 at auction and two races later rocked the world with a 117-1 win in a TAM allowance race. Things moved along as things do until her connections decided to go long. That resulted in a second-place finish in the Grade II Flower Bowl at SAR. She is still testing out what distance she is going to concentrate on but look out if it’s one mile.
5 Miss Hijinks Maxmillion Farm 88
Miss Hijinks seemed headed for glory when, in only her fourth race, she came from fourteenth to finish third in the BC Juvenile Fillies Turf. But things quieted down, and she has only been in two Grade stakes since, the latest being her most recent race the Grade III Fox at GP in which she finished up the track at long odds. If she can reach back to the race before, a big-ticket allowance race at SA which she won at long odds, she could be a factor here.
6 Itaintovertilitsover TwinTowersRacing 91
Itaintovertilitsover is one of those slow developers in the hands of one of the most patient trainers in the game. She took seven races to break her maiden, and when she did, it was as pretty as they come, and then she made it a double. But she went back to taking her time and her trainer went back to bringing her along to where he liked what he saw in that turf mile a race back. He knows how she closes, and he knows she’s a real upset chance here. His specialty. Watch out for this dark horse.
7 Engine Night Rider Stables 93
For the first half of her career, Engine was a claimer, but Raj has been patiently building her up from the $10.000 claimer he purchased from Panionios Racing to the stakes horse she is today. She tried a couple of Graded stakes races with no success but has shown some improvement recently, including a second in a SA overnight allowance that garnered a 94 SRF.
8 Love Mo Mentum Farm 82
Love has been fiddling around with marathon distances and sprints. Muddies up the waters when you try to get a reading on her, but I think a mile is a nice distance for her, in spite of all the routes and sprints. Also, I will throw out the Grade III Very One performance because I don’t think she cared for the track condition… first time she’s been on a track that wet. That leaves a filly in very good form, recently third in the Grade I QE II Challenge Cup.
9 Voltaire Threshold 92
Voltaire took some time off after the BC Fillies & Mares Turf and looked a little rusty running up the track in the Grade II Pegasus F&M Turf at GP. I think she’s had time to shake out the cobwebs and return to the form that got her into last year’s BC. Her works are starting to come around, and her trainer has a way of getting her sharp and keeping her sharp. Class will tell.
Categories: Grade III, STAKES ARTICLES
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